Cause and Effect
by MizJoely
Summary: Sequel to Consequences, in which the 5th Doctor and Tegan find their relationship complicated by the uninvited presence of the White Guardian.
1. Going Loony

**Part 1: Falling Behind the Future**

_...every morning when the light / __comes creeping in around my eyes _

_another future falls behind / __the one I had in mind_

_Concrete Blonde, "Days and Days"_

The Doctor rose to his feet as the White Guardian appeared, literally out of nowhere, and beckoned imperiously. "I have to go out for a bit." Tegan and Sarah Jane looked up in confusion at his hastily uttered words; it was the middle of breakfast, after all, and it was quite clear they couldn't see the glowing vision waiting so impatiently for him. "I'll be back soon," he threw over his shoulder as he hurried out of the kitchen door and disappeared into his TARDIS.

Tegan frowned at Sarah Jane as she hauled a fussing Lanie out of her high chair and deposited the baby onto her lap. "I don't much like the sound of that." She kept her eyes on the time machine, but it didn't budge, and she managed to relax just a touch at its continued presence.

Sarah Jane shrugged. "Some things never change. Better eat up," she advised as she dug into her ham and eggs. "If things are about to go loony around here again, there's no telling when Harry will be able to whip up another gourmet meal like this."

Tegan forced her attention away from the door before it was once again caught by her daughter. "Pay no attention to your father, young lady," she instructed the baby, who was gleefully trying to pull her mother's plate off the table. "He's forever doing things like this."

As she removed the plate from her daughter's hands, she found herself wishing that whatever it was could have waited a little longer. Twenty years, for instance, would have been better than the two months they'd managed to steal for themselves. Twenty years would have let them know if they could really make a go of being some kind of a family, to see if the wary truce between the former stewardess and the time traveler could develop into something more.

Tegan gloomily contemplated her dish of suddenly unappetizing food, then glanced under her lashes at Sarah Jane Smith-Sullivan, still complacently chewing away at the meal her husband, Dr. Harry Sullivan, M.D., R.A.F., had cooked before duty called him away. Tegan envied her friends their relationship; it was relatively uncomplicated, at least compared to the one she shared with the Doctor.

Now _there_ was a sore spot; she didn't even know the real name of her daughter's father. Made her feel like the heroine of one of those trashy romances she used to read behind her mother's back, when she was still a headstrong, willful teenager back in her native Brisbane, Australia. Not so long ago in actual years, but a lifetime ago in experience.

It was amazing, when she thought about it, the twists and turns her life had taken. Perhaps it _would_ make a good trashy novel, she reflected, toying idly with her eggs. Girl meets Time Traveler, Girl loses Time Traveler, Girl gets Time Traveler back. Or did she? Tegan still wasn't sure about the "Happily Ever After" theory. She and the Doctor still argued about things, still had periods—long, drawn-out periods—of being uncomfortable around each other, and there were times when she swore they had nothing in common but sex and parenthood. Not much to build a relationship on.

She was honest enough to admit that it wasn't all his fault, even though she wished she could point the finger solely at him. But truth was truth, and the truth of the matter was that she was cranky and difficult to live with and flew off the handle way too easily. And he was secretive and impatient and annoyingly smug about far too many things. _We make quite a pair,_ Tegan thought, torn between amusement and distress. _Maybe I'm not that different from when I was in Australia, driving my parents crazy, or in London terrorizing my grandfather or Aunty Vanessa._ She shook her head at herself, returning to the present in time to prevent Lanie from dumping her juice onto her lap. She gave her daughter a spoonful of lukewarm eggs, then took one herself. _Guess I'll just have to see what the future brings._

For some reason, that thought gave her very little comfort.


	2. Unexpected Company

**oOo**

"I've come to tell you that you have to leave," the White Guardian said, with no prelude. Although the Doctor distinctly remembered entering his TARDIS, he found himself standing next to a low stone wall, gazing out at what appeared to be a peaceful Edwardian countryside, complete with a grand mansion in the background and sheep grazing on the expanse of green lawn. The White Guardian stood next to him. Glowing. "You've had your time off, and now it is time to return to your work."

The Doctor cocked his head quizzically. "Return to work? I'm not certain I understand you."

"Come now, Doctor," the White Guardian's voice was lined with impatience. He turned to glance over his shoulder at the Time Lord. "You know very well that I do not engage in frivolities. This is no time to be obtuse. You need to leave Earth. At once. And pick up that young woman, Peri, before you go. You'll be needing her."

"You're not making any sense," the Doctor protested. "Why should I do any of that?"

"Because you have more important matters to attend to."

The Doctor stiffened. "I happen to feel that my family is extremely important," he said quietly. "More important than any amount of random wandering about the galaxy. They need me right now, and quite frankly, I need them. Whatever's going on in the universe can wait for a while."

"The universe has already waited for two Earth months while you attended to your personal affairs," the White Guardian snapped. "It is time you gave it your attention once again. While there is still time to put things to rights."

The Doctor's uneasiness grew as this strange conversation continued. What was the White Guardian talking about, putting things to rights? "Why?" he demanded irritably. "I did it before and no one noticed! I practically retired, until I was ready for my first regeneration! That took much longer than a mere two months, if you recall. Why shouldn't I take this time for myself?"

The Doctor felt the White Guardian's sigh whisper impatiently in his mind. "I didn't want to have to tell you this, but it seems I must," he stated, the words still forceful for the soft tone in which they were spoken. "You were not supposed to be here at all, weren't even supposed to make this much of a stopover on Earth. You've severely disrupted the Time Lines of this universe. All because your TARDIS intercepted a message from Lavinia Smith that it wasn't supposed to." His expression hardened. "Someone has been meddling in your reality, Doctor. Someone has purposefully altered your life from its proper course."

The Doctor felt a chill fall over him at those words. _So much for the myth of free will._ "You're telling me that my life has been set, that I am following some sort of predestined cosmic plan."

The White Guardian shrugged eloquently. "Call it what you like, Doctor. Fate, destiny, karma...all of the myths have a basis in truth. You of all people should realize that."

The Doctor shook his head stubbornly. "I of all people believe in the free will of intelligent beings to plot their own courses in life. I refuse to believe that everything I do, from brushing my teeth to fighting with the Master, is part of some elaborate schedule."

"You're very fond of Earth, Doctor, aren't you?" The Doctor nodded, caught off guard by the apparent non-sequitur. "They have a strong tradition of philosophizing, a strong religious background throughout their history. I assume you've heard of St. Augustine?"

The Doctor nodded again. He saw where this was leading, and he still didn't like it, but at least this was something he could understand. "St. Augustine believed in free will within a predestined life," he answered reluctantly. "His ideas were very similar to those of the old Norse myths about the Fates holding the threads of life, cutting those threads when the life was due to end. What a man did within those allotted years was up to him; but the end came when it was due, and nothing he did could stop it."

The White Guardian waited until the Doctor's impromptu lecture on Earth religion ran out of steam before speaking again. "Then you do understand what I have been trying to tell you."

The Time Lord turned away from him. "I understand," he conceded. "But I don't have to believe it." His voice rang with challenge.

"I never asked you to," his ostensible host replied drily. The Doctor's lips quirked in a brief smile that quickly faded as the White Guardian continued. "However, I am asking you to do what you can to mend the errors. They are compounded, error upon error, every moment you continue in this incorrect direction. If you hesitate too long, it will be too late to return time to its proper course."

"Are you saying I've created an alternate timeline?" The Doctor's voice was skeptical. "Does that mean there's a 'true' timeline, or has this one completely replaced the 'real' one?"

The Guardian sent a scornful glance at the Doctor. "You once told one of your traveling companions that there was no such thing as an alternate universe; have you changed your mind since then?"

"It was worth a try," the Doctor mumbled, not at all contritely. He turned back quickly to face his host, a suspicious gleam in his eyes as a sudden thought struck him. "You said 'someone' altered my life. Who?" he demanded.

The White Guardian sighed again, this time impatiently. "Very well, Doctor, since it gives you so much pleasure: I shall admit that I do not know. I suspected the Black Guardian, but I dismissed him as he would never have given you so...pleasant...an alternative. Although," he seemed to reconsider his words, "perhaps I was hasty in drawing that conclusion."

"You mean perhaps he _did_ give me a pleasant alternative?" the Doctor guessed. "Perhaps he wanted me to be at odds with you, to want this life I'm living now, to be unwilling to give it up? Is that what you're thinking?"

The White Guardian nodded, still looking distracted. "Perhaps, although he is not usually this subtle. Still, it is worth further consideration."

"What will you do?" the Doctor cut in, concerned by the White Guardian's show of unease. He must truly be worried, to allow a mere ephemeral like a Time Lord to see him indecisive.

"Do? I shall ponder the situation further, of course," the White Guardian replied. He waved a negligent hand. "Go back to your Earth family, Doctor. You have won yourself a reprieve. I will contact you when I have discovered the truth of the matter."

He vanished, and the illusionary scenery he'd conjured up vanished as well, leaving the Doctor standing in Lavinia Smith's front hall.

"Doctor! Where on earth have you been?"

The Prydonian turned at that surprised voice, to see Lavinia standing on the stairs. "Not on Earth at all," he replied vaguely, then walked slowly toward the front parlor. "Please excuse me; I need to speak with K-9."

Lavinia stared after her houseguest with an expression of mixed concern and suspicion in her eyes. The Doctor had simply vanished for nearly a full day, and all he had to say was that he needed to speak to K-9? She was certainly beginning to see why Tegan, Sarah and Harry became so frustrated with him! She shook her head and continued into the kitchen. Better warn Tegan that he was back, and acting extremely distracted. To say the least.


	3. Disrupting Reality

**oOo**

"Insufficient data, Master." K-9's flat, metallic voice sounded almost apologetic, and the Doctor patted the mechanical dog's head distractedly. "Unable to access requested information."

"Of course," he murmured. "I had a feeling you would be." He smiled slightly. "Unless you can somehow tap into the cosmic frequencies the White Guardian uses."

"Master?" The questioning note in K-9's voice was unmistakable, but the Doctor merely shook his head as he rose to his feet. They were in Lavinia's basement lab, her "puttering room," as she called it. Since the Doctor's visit had turned out to be an extended one, as she'd hoped, she'd set aside a generous portion of the room for his use. Not that his TARDIS wasn't sufficient for any "puttering" he might choose to do, but no one could miss the way Tegan tensed every time he entered the time machine without her.

"Sorry to bother you, K-9," he threw over his shoulder as he walked toward the door leading to the rest of the basement. "If I think of something you might actually be able to help me with, I'll let you know." He turned his head, intending to return to his TARDIS and do some further investigating, and just managed to stop himself from bumping into Tegan.

"Hullo," he said in surprise. "I didn't realize you were there." She was wearing a very fetching yellow sun dress, and he was about to compliment her on it when he belatedly noticed the glare she was wearing and wisely decided to save the compliment for later.

"Where've you been?" she demanded as she stalked into the room, allowing the door to slam shut behind her. The Doctor backed up a step. "You vanish into the TARDIS for almost a full day, Lavinia says you just appear in the hall out of nowhere, and the first thing you do when you come back is shut yourself up with K-9, no word of explanation, and not even bothering to let anyone know you've come back!"

"If I told you it was terribly important but that I didn't feel comfortable discussing it right now, would that suffice as an answer?" he asked hopefully.

"No," Tegan snapped.

The Doctor leaned against the edge of the nearest counter with a sigh. "Somehow I didn't think it would," he murmured.

"Well?"

The Doctor looked down at his feet, then brought his eyes back to meet Tegan's defiant gaze. She wasn't angry, in spite of the harshness of her voice. She was frightened, and he understood that fear, since he shared it. "I've had a visit from the White Guardian."

Tegan shook her head in stunned denial. "Not so soon," she protested in a voice barely above a whisper. A violent shudder wracked her frame, and the Doctor moved to take her in his arms. "Not so soon," she repeated numbly. "Can't the bloody universe wait just a little while longer?"

"I asked that same question myself," he murmured, his arms tightening around her in response to her continued shaking. "I was told that it could not, and that I was in effect disruptingthe very fabric of realityby taking this unofficial leave of absence."

Tegan's brow wrinkled in puzzlement as she stared up at him. "Disrupting reality? But you're a Time Lord; you're always going round fixing things back the way they're supposed to be!"

"Yes, well, apparently that is not as random as I've always believed, if I can take what the White Guardian tells me at face value," he replied. "I've never thought of myself as particularly important in the grand scheme of things, but now the White Guardian is trying to tell me that's exactly what I am. Particularly important. Only this time, the thing that needs fixing up is my own life, at least as far as it affects the larger universe." And to the detriment of the life he was attempting to build on Earth, was the unspoken caveat.

Tegan burrowed her face into his shoulder. "It's not fair."

The Doctor leaned down and kissed the top of her head, nodding his acceptance of her words, illogical though they were. It wasn't fair, but then, nothing in life was. "The question is," he said softly, almost to himself, "what am I going to do about it?"


	4. The Nature of Commitment

**oOo **

"Well, then, what are you going to do about it?"

The Doctor raised and lowered his shoulders in a shrug as he turned away from the kitchen window to face the rest of the room. At Tegan's urging, he had explained the situation to the other occupants of the house--his friends and comrades, who had faced so much with him, who had always stood by him, no matter what. Who, he was beginning to realize, would always do so. He had always felt himself to be a disruptive force in his traveling companion's lives, and it surprised him how accepting they were of him in spite of the upheaval he invariably caused. Upheaval and turmoil, and lives turned upside down, and still their first, instinctive reaction was to help him. Even Tegan, and he marveled at that more than anything else.

He looked at them all, seeing the unexpected--and unexpectedly welcome--determination on every face. Sarah Jane, who had posed the question, was standing by the door to the parlor. Harry and Lavinia were seated at the table on either side of Tegan, while Lanie slept in a basket at her mother's feet, K-9 standing guard next to her. "War council," Sarah had pronounced it, and war council it was, no matter how much it resembled a cozy family gathering. And all of them waiting to hear what he would do next, and what they could do to help him. Astonishing. He had the feeling that even Lanie would sit up in her basket and demand to do something, if he only waited. But she slept on, oblivious to the tension around her, and he was thankful that it was so.

"Of course you have to find out if the White Guardian is telling the truth," the reporter continued after another moment passed in silence. "If he is, then we have to find out who's behind it. And why."

The Doctor nodded reluctantly. "As much as I'd like to hope that this will all just blow over, I doubt very much that it will," he replied. His gaze briefly met Tegan's, then passed over the rest of the group. Taking their measure. "I should start by saying that I have no doubt whatsoever that the White Guardian is telling the truth. No matter how distasteful a truth it may be," he added. "Finding out who has altered the natural flow of the time stream is our first priority." A pause. "Or rather, it should be _my_ first priority." He had to make one last attempt to keep them out of it, if only because he suspected it was going to be messy. Very messy. "I have no right to drag any of you into this--"

"You couldn't possibly keep us out!" This interruption came, not from Sarah Jane or Tegan, but, unexpectedly, from Harry Sullivan. Not that the Doctor had any doubts as to Harry's courage or loyalty, but the medical man had traveled on the TARDIS for a shorter period of time than the others, and seemed to have no regrets when he'd taken his last trip. The Doctor realized with a twinge of guilt that he'd never gotten to know the MD as well as he had others that traveled with him, that he'd allowed his irritation with some of Harry's careless habits to get in the way of knowing the man behind the carelessness. At least Sarah Jane hadn't made that same mistake, no matter how long she'd taken to make up her mind to marry his former traveling companion.

Harry was looking uncertainly at the others while the Doctor's thoughts wandered. "That is, if everyone agrees--"

"Of course we do, Harry," Lavinia spoke up sharply. Another person whose life he'd affected, albeit more indirectly than any of the others. But her support was just as welcome a surprise as everyone else's; the Doctor began to feel a cautious sort of hope that he might be able to work through this. With friends like these, why not? "The Doctor knows it as well as the rest of us. There's never been any question of him playing the lone wolf on this one." Her glance moved deliberately to the baby's basket. "He's got as many commitments here as he does anywhere else in the universe. More."

"I agree." The Doctor's voice rang out, in answer to the unspoken challenge behind Lavinia's words. "However," he continued, "it does not appear that I shall be allowed to honor those commitments unmolested. Which brings us back to Sarah's question. What are we going to do?"

There was no question of not involving them, not any longer, and the Doctor knew it had never really been an issue.

"Is there any way to find out what's different now than the way it's supposed to be?" Tegan's voice was hesitant, as if she wasn't sure how to phrase the question. "I mean, besides the fact that you're here, of course."

"What would you have done if you hadn't received my message and downloaded it?" Lavinia clarified when Tegan floundered to a stop. The younger woman smiled at her gratefully. "Where were you, what were you doing?"

"Turlough had finally been reunited with his people, and was returning to Trion, his home planet," the Doctor began, his eyes growing abstracted as he recalled the events that led to his return. "I'd managed to acquire yet another companion--Perpigillium Brown, an American," he added. "Peri for short. I suppose I would have continued traveling with her. She showed an interest in staying for a while, and I've grown so accustomed to traveling with others, it never would have occurred to me to bring her straight home unless she specifically asked me to."

"Even then, you usually managed to avoid doing it," Tegan muttered, a smile softening the sting of the implied criticism. "Obviously you managed it this time, unless you've had her locked up in the TARDIS for the past two months!"

"No, she's home," the Doctor replied firmly. "Where she belongs. At least, where I assumed she belonged. The White Guardian seems to have very different ideas on that subject."

"And he thinks the Black Guardian might be behind it all, that he's the one that made certain you received my message," Lavinia murmured, more, it seemed, to order her own thoughts than anything. Her eyes remained puzzled as the Doctor nodded his agreement. "I'm afraid I still don't quite understand, Doctor," she continued, looking up at him. "Time travel would seem to preclude the possibility of situations like this; shouldn't you simply be able to make side trips for as long as you like--relatively speaking, of course--and then simply take up where you left off? If you wanted to?" she added with a hasty, apologetic glance at Tegan.

"You've done it before," Sarah chimed in. "Lots of times."

"I pointed that out to the White Guardian; he was not impressed," the Doctor replied dryly. "Ordinarily, Lavinia would be right; I _should_ be able to take as long as I want and simply return to the point in time and space I was when I took my 'vacation'. Unfortunately, the White Guardian is saying it isn't working that way. Not this time. Somehow, the longer I remain here, the more out of sync the universe becomes. Things are happening that I cannot go back and alter at what would be a later date for me. Things that apparently require my immediate attention."

"It's so confusing," Tegan broke in. "It seemed like you kept things from happening that weren't supposed to be happening, sure, but your TARDIS always seemed to end up at those places by accident!"

"Not always," the Doctor corrected her. "Many of my destinations were the ones I was aiming for, even if the situation wasn't what I expected--with a few notable exceptions," he added with a glance at Sarah Jane.

"Getting back to UNIT HQ the one time was a bit on the difficult side," she agreed. "And didn't you tell us you ended up in E-Space when you were trying for Gallifrey? Not to mention the time--"

"Very well," the Doctor interrupted crossly. "So it was more than a few times. The point I am trying to make is that a distressing number of the times I went off-course was because the High Council or the Celestial Intervention Agency sent me there--whether I knew it at the time or not," he added. "And I'm positive that they were in turn directly influenced by the White Guardian when they chose me as their agent. And now, of course, it seems the White Guardian made sure I arrived at various other temporal crisis points even when I arrived at my intended physical destination." He shoved his hands in his pockets. "If I thought about it at all, I just assumed those random course changes were an eccentricity of the TARDIS, some kind of programming glitch I was never able to work out, but now..."

"But now we have some rather nebulous evidence to the contrary," Sarah Jane put in. "Is there any way to gain more concrete evidence?"

"Why bother?" Everyone turned to Lavinia in surprise. "No, really, think about it," she insisted. "Does it truly matter why, or even if, the Black Guardian sent you off course? Isn't the point of all this to find out what it is you were supposed to set right this time, and didn't? Or haven't done yet? Do you have any way of figuring that out?"

The Doctor nodded. "You're right, Lavinia; I let myself get sidetracked on details that may ultimately have no importance, although they are questions I plan to have answered eventually," he warned. "How, why, and who--but now is not the time for those answers. Right now we need to concentrate, as Lavinia so succinctly put it, on what I was supposed to set right." He gazed off into the distance. "Unfortunately, there are a distressing number of possibilities."

"Aren't there always?" Tegan muttered. "So why don't you toddle off to the TARDIS and see what's going on in the universe, see what's different than you remember it?"

"The problem with my memories is that they aren't always reliable, and neither are the TARDIS computers," the Doctor replied. He stared at the others with an expression suspiciously close to hopelessness in his eyes. "The chances of finding something--"

"Are better if you actually try to do it than if you just sit around worrying about how hard it will be," Tegan interrupted firmly. She seemed determined to keep him on track, and the Doctor wondered what had happened to the hysterics she seemed on the verge of earlier, in the laboratory. "Just scan the computer records or whatever, and if anything seems funny…" She shrugged.

"What, just go on instinct?" the Doctor asked with a small grin. "It's certainly an idea." He paused. "Of course, I could use some help looking things over--you've seen the future enough, would you care to look over my shoulder for a while?"

She seemed surprised by the offer, but a pleased smile spread across her face as she nodded. "That'd be super!"

Sarah seemed about to say something, but kept her thoughts to herself as Harry and Lavinia both shot her warning glances. Once she thought about it, she was glad she'd kept her offer to help to herself; it seemed obvious now that the Doctor hadn't wanted so much to pick Tegan's brains as to spend some time alone with her.

"I'll mind Lanie," she volunteered instead, smiling back in acknowledgment of the Doctor's grateful smile for her understanding. It had taken her years of travel and even more years of separation, but she thought she was finally beginning to understand him. Just a little, but that was probably as much as anyone ever would.


	5. Domestic Arrangements

**oOo**

"So what are we supposed to be looking at?" Tegan's brow wrinkled as she reviewed what she assumed was some kind of stellar map projected in three dimensions above the TARDIS console. The room had been darkened, and the only light came from the tiny pinpricks of white light floating above their heads. She'd never seen the Console Room like this; under other circumstances, she'd probably find it enchanting.

"The complete history of time," the Doctor replied, spreading his arms dramatically before allowing them to fall back to his sides. "Laid out as a four-dimensional representation of a supra-dimensional object."

"Right. That's helpful." Tegan's tone implied otherwise. She turned her gaze on the man standing next to her. "So what are we supposed to be looking for?" she asked, varying her first question in the hopes of actually getting an answer she'd understand.

"This representation is the one taken from the last time the TARDIS dematerialized, two months ago." When he'd first come to Earth and discovered that Tegan's reasons for leaving him were as much physical as emotional.

"Right." Tegan nodded. Waiting.

He reached over, fiddled with a few levers, depressed several buttons, and a second projection sprang into being, overlaying the original. "This representation, on the other hand, is based on the TARDIS' extrapolations of where things ought to be now, after two month's subjective time have passed." The Doctor hesitated, not sure how technical he should get in his explanation: on the one hand, he didn't want to go completely over her head; on the other, he didn't want her to accuse him of treating her like, what was the phrase she'd used once? Like adim-witted pet. Of course, if she did feel that way, she'd let him know in no uncertain terms, so he decided to err on the side of simplicity.

While he dithered, Tegan tried to look as if she were actually following this, nodding her head and craning her neck for another look. All she saw was the original white pinpricks of light, now joined and frequently overlapped by red pinpricks of light. "OK," she said after a moment spent trying to think of anything other than the fact that she felt as if she were looking up at the lights on a gigantic, upside-down Christmas tree. "So that's what things look like now."

"That's what things are supposed to look like now, according to the TARDIS," he corrected her, hiding a smile at the doubtful expression on her face. He tapped another lever. "We can't get an accurate 'snapshot,' if you will, until I dematerialize the TARDIS and spend some time in the vortex."

Ah, so that was why he really wanted her with him. To give her the bad news. Tegan tried to hide her dismay, poorly, she suspected. "So you're leaving."

"Actually, it's just a short trip, and I was rather hoping you would come with me." The offer was made diffidently, almost shyly, and he watched anxiously for her reaction.

"Come with you?" Tegan was nonplussed; she obviously hadn't expected that particular offer.

He nodded, reaching to take her hand in his. Even after two months spent sharing the same bed, with neither party compelled to slip away in the night, such moments felt...awkward. He was never sure of her reaction. Not that she ever slapped his hand away, but he could sense her own awkwardness with this change in their relationship.

Not the sex; that had resumed comfortably, naturally, as if they'd never been apart. No, it was the sudden transparency of their relationship that unsettled him, and, if he was reading things correctly, her; something they'd shared in private was now open to the scrutiny of the world. Or at least the scrutiny of the Smith-Sullivan household. Again, not the sex, just the fact of the relationship itself. It felt odd, to be in a relationship in the first place, let alone one that an entire houseful of people felt free to comment on. Well, Sarah Jane did, at any rate. Lavinia and Harry were both much more circumspect. Or at least displayed better manners.

"How come you never used this before?" Tegan asked, sidestepping the question. He sensed the beginning of panic, manifesting as a rapid increase in her heartbeat, a slight but unmistakable tremor in her voice, the way she suddenly couldn't seem to look straight at him.

He gave her the time she needed get herself under control by answering her question before making her answer his. "I never needed to assess the status of the entire known universe before. In the past, I was always able to discover which immediate problem needed solving; I've never spent a great deal of time researching trouble spots and aiming my TARDIS at them. Although I suppose that's exactly what the White Guardian was doing all along," he added, disgruntled. He really had liked the idea of free will; damned if he'd give it up now!

Tegan had got the almost-panic under control. "So it's just a quick dematerialize and then we're back where we started from? The White Guardian isn't out there," she waved a hand vaguely in the air, "waiting to...to hijack you? Us?" she corrected herself. "Whisk the TARDIS off to wherever he says it was supposed to be going two months ago?"

The Doctor opened his mouth to unequivocally deny such a possibility, then found himself in the ludicrous position of not being able to do so. He closed his mouth and looked thoughtful instead. "I'd like very much to say 'nonsense!' right now..."

"But you can't," Tegan guessed. The tension had returned, the nuances of fight-or-flight manifesting themselves in the way she held her head, the way her hand clutched at his, the rapid increase of her heartbeat and breathing. "So what would we do, if something like that did happen?"

Again, he had no answer, and he said as much. Tegan was not satisfied. "I couldn't take the chance of not getting back to Lanie," she said flatly, in a "this discussion is over" tone of voice.

"We could always fix the problem and get back before she wakes up," he suggested, knowing very well how she would take that idea.

Right on cue, she glared at him, snatching her hand away. "Bugger that," she snapped. "I can't believe you'd even think I could abandon our daughter on the off-chance that we'll be back before her high school graduation."

"You're right; it's far too risky," the Doctor agreed, and not just to keep the argument from expanding, as it threatened to do. He offered another suggestion, although he had a feeling he knew exactly how she would react to it. "We could take her with us."

He could feel her glaring at him even if he couldn't see her face clearly. "Or not," he added, resigned to the fact that she was still resistant to the idea of taking Lanie onto the TARDIS. Never mind that Susan had practically grown up here and turned out just fine... "But the fact remains that I will have to risk it. There's really no other way to follow the out-of-sync threads in the temporal movement of the universe."

"Of course there isn't," Tegan muttered, not mollified in the least. However, she did let him take her hand once again, even moved a step closer, so their arms and shoulders brushed. He felt the tension in her body as her gaze returned to the points of illumination over their heads. "If you're absolutely certain there's no other way..."

He desperately wanted to give her the answer they both wanted to hear, but knew better than to try and minimize the dangers just for the sake of temporary peace of mind. "Absolutely. Short of visiting each and every world and time, which would not only be impractical and, if you'll pardon the phrase, time consuming, but would also result in dematerializing the TARDIS. Multiple times."

"Leading to the same risk of being hijacked by the White Guardian," Tegan concluded, her voice grudging. She turned to face him. "When? When do you want to do this?"

"As soon as possible. We don't know how much time we have before the White Guardian returns in the flesh, so to speak," he reminded her gently. "And I'd rather be proactive about this situation. The sooner things are mended, the sooner we can see what our personal future holds for us."

"Fine." The tone was still grudging, the tension still radiating from her body like an electrical charge. She turned so she was facing him, her face only partially illuminated by the sparkling lights above them. "Fine, then, off you go. But first..."

He felt the fingers of her free hand groping their way to his face, moving gently from chin to cheek as she tiptoed up enough to kiss him. He responded in kind, slipping an arm around her back to both support her and pull her closer, pressing her body fully against his. The fingers of their other hands were still entwined, and he felt her shiver as the kiss deepened. Arousal was still a matter of conscious decision for him, at least as far as the physical manifestations went, and he debated the wisdom of letting her feel how much she was affecting him before adopting a "to hell with it" attitude and letting his body do what it wanted.

Tegan gasped with surprised pleasure as she felt the sudden flush of heat, the rise of passion, and instinctively moved her hips closer, grinding them slightly against his. She felt his hand move from her waist to brush gently at her bottom, and pulled her other hand free of his in order to entwine both arms behind his neck and pull him closer, letting her lips part beneath his and giving herself completely to the moment.

**oOo**

Afterwards, lying entangled in each others arms, the Doctor was surprised to hear a muffled snort of laughter escape Tegan's lips. He raised himself up on one elbow in order to gaze down at her. "That's a new reaction."

That did it; she burst into full laughter at his affronted tone, lying helplessly on the floor, laughing even harder as his expression became even more confused. "I'm sorry!" she finally gasped, managing to sit up and almost smashing the top of her head into his nose in the process. That set off another gale of laughter, and he resigned himself to having to wait until she was able to control herself before he found out what exactly she found so funny.

She finally wound down, leaning her head against his chest and settling herself more comfortably on the tangle of clothes beneath them. "I'm sorry," she said again, tilting her head up for a kiss, which he grudgingly delivered. "It's just that, suddenly I flashed back to when I was first on the TARDIS, before we ever, you know."

She blushed, which he found charming and made him suddenly more inclined to forgive her the fit of giggles. As long as she continued with the so-far less than edifying explanation... "I used to think about you, about us, you know, doing this sort of thing long before I ever thought it possible." The blush deepened, and his annoyance evaporated completely as he realized she was offering him something more akin to a confession than an explanation. "And I just realized, this is sort of what I used to, um, imagine. Us, in the Console Room, doing exactly this."

He grinned down at her. "_Exactly_ this?" he teased.

The giggles tried to make a comeback; Tegan kept them firmly in check, and wished she could do the same for red flush still staining her face and chest. "No, actually," she said, her voice a mixture of defiance and deviltry. "It was a lot more...acrobatic. And involved various interesting uses of the console as a backrest. Among other things. Avoiding all buttons and levers, of course." Honesty compelled her to add: "Mostly."

"Hmm." He fell silent, and Tegan, who had dropped her gaze, stole a glance up at him. He was contemplating the console with a speculative gleam in his eyes. Tegan gasped, smothering a laugh, then letting it out as he carefully arranged an innocent expression on his face.

"You wouldn't." It was a statement, but with just enough uncertainty to make it almost a question.

"Wouldn't I just..." Tegan gasped as the Doctor swooped her up easily in his arms. "Wouldn't I just..." he repeated, rising to his feet, and Tegan decided she should have started things with him loads earlier than she actually had. That was her last coherent thought for a long, lovely time.

**oOo**

Sarah Jane was just entering the kitchen when the Doctor and Tegan returned from their afternoon in the TARDIS. She very carefully refrained from commenting on the less than perfect state of Tegan's hair or the fact that the Doctor's celery was looking a bit...squashed. "Any luck?" she asked innocently, hiding a smile at the flustered look that crossed Tegan's face.

The Doctor,on the other hand, retained his composure admirably. He gazed at her with a cool stare. "I have to dematerialized the TARDIS to check on some things. Tegan and I were discussing whether or not she should accompany me."

"Discussing" usually meant "arguing" but Sarah Jane had the feeling they'd been up to something a little less...confrontational, at least part of the time. "What's the verdict?" was all she asked.

"I'm staying here. If the White Guardian decides to steal the Doctor away, one of us has to be here with Lanie." The humor of the situation, and Tegan's relaxed pose, ended with that statement, given in her patented "don't mess with me" tone of voice.

"Tegan, I doubt very much that is his intent," the Doctor said, with the air of someone patiently repeating something the other person already knew. "He said I had been granted a reprieve, which implies that he intends to return here at some point, rather than that he intends to simply snatch me away like a goblin abducting an infant..." That was the wrong thing to say, he knew it as soon as the words were out of his mouth, even before Tegan's stricken expression or Sarah Jane's abortive shake of the head. "Yes. Bad choice of words. But I still believe it's a risk I have to take, else we'll never be any closer to discovering what's really at stake."

"Come upstairs and kiss Lanie good-bye," was all Tegan said before marching out of the kitchen, her back radiating disapproval. The Doctor spared an apologetic glance for Sarah Jane, who waved him on with a rueful grin.

The Doctor nearly tangled with Harry, who chose that moment to enter the kitchen. "Sorry," he muttered before disappearing up the stairs two at a time. Harry stared after him, then continued into the kitchen, allowing the door to swing shut behind him. "What was that all about?" he asked his wife. Two months into marriage and he still smiled every time her thought about her in those terms.

"Domestic arrangements," was all Sarah Jane replied before tugging on her husband's necktie until he lowered his face for a most satisfactory kiss. "For some reason," she whispered when they eventually pulled apart, "I'm feeling very partial to some private time with my husband."

Harry had never been one to keep Sarah Jane from anything she wanted. Especially not when, miracles of miracles, it had turned out to be him. Beaming and still somewhat bemused, he took her hand and followed as she led him to their newly renovated flat on the third floor. Soundproofing, he reflected with what he suspected was an idiotic grin, had turned out to be a wiser investment than he'd originally believed.


	6. Point of No Return

**oOo**

The Doctor found Tegan in the room they shared with their daughter. "I'm going to have to add an extension to the back," Lavinia had jokingly complained when Harry and Sarah Jane announced their intention to continue living with her, but everyone could tell she was overjoyed at the prospect. She had lived alone for years, then with Sarah Jane intermittently, and the full house she now boasted made her happier than she could have imagined.

Tegan and the Doctor had offered to move out, an offer which Lavinia had refused, much to Tegan's secret relief. Oh, it was a bit cramped at times, and it wasn't always easy trying to rebuild her relationship with the Doctor under what felt like continuous observation, but she liked having a built-in support system. It came in very handy at times.

Like today, for instance. When the Doctor was about to leave, possibly for good, never mind that he had every intention of returning immediately. He wasn't the only one messing about with his future at the moment. She watched as he picked Lanie up from her crib, making faces at her until she giggled and grabbed for his nose. He gave her a noisy kiss on the cheek and deposited her in her playpen. After a disapproving pout, she deigned to pick up some of her blocks, thoughtfully tasting them before stacking them up, knocking them over, and stacking them up once again.

"Do me one favor before you go." The Doctor tensed, then turned to face Tegan. She was staring at Lanie, watching her antics without her usual smile.

"What is it?"

"Tell me your name." It took every ounce of courage she had to ask. Not that she didn't think she had a right to know, but because he invariably brushed such requests off, either by making a joke or ignoring the request altogether.

"Theta."

"Please, I really--what?" Tegan blinked. Had he just answered her, without having to be threatened or cajoled or, God forbid, whined at?

"Theta," the Doctor repeated patiently. "I haven't used that name in a long time, but I haven't forgotten it."

"Theta," Tegan repeated. "Isn't that a letter in Greek?"

"On your world," he agreed, smiling, moving toward her. "On my world, it's my name."

"Theta. I'll have to try to get used to that," Tegan conceded, allowing him to bring her close for a hug and a brief kiss. "So go and get this over with," she whispered, gently pushing him away. He took a step toward the door, hesitated, turned back to look at her. "Go on," she urged. "Either you'll be right back or you won't. Either way, I can't stand the suspense."

He nodded, leaning forward for one last kiss. Or not.

Behind them, Lanie babbled to herself and stacked her blocks. Neither of her parents noticed that she chose the ones with the letters "T-H-E-T-A" on them. And since the Doctor wasn't really listening to her, he didn't notice that she was reciting the alphabet in flawlessly accented Greek.

Such discoveries would have to wait for another day.

**oOo**

The Doctor encountered no one as he made his way back downstairs, at least not until he reached the kitchen. Lavinia was fixing herself a cup of tea, K-9 waiting patiently at her feet. "Where are you off to?" She leaned against the counter, one hand still on the teaspoon she'd been using to stir in her usual half-teaspoon of sugar.

He explained, briefly, and her friendly smile turned to a frown. "Is there a chance the White Guardian will do as Tegan fears?"

K-9 took the question as if it had been directed toward him. "There is a 3.0759 percent chance that the entity known as the 'White Guardian' will interfere at this current junction, Mistress."

The Doctor's eyebrow rose. "As much as all that?" he protested. "I'd calculate the odds a bit lower, myself."

K-9's antennae whirred and rotated. "All variables have been factored into my calculations." Lavinia could have sworn he sounded offended.

"Very well." The Doctor turned back to Lavinia, recognizing his desire to argue with K-9 as a delaying tactic. "I should return almost immediately after I dematerialize. If I don't..." he hesitated, unsure of what he wanted to say.

"If you don't, we'll deal with the consequences," Lavinia finished for him in the firm, no-nonsense tone of voice she usually reserved for her students. "You could stand here dithering all day, Doctor, and it won't change the fact that you've already decided this is the best way to approach the problem. Do you want to wait until the White Guardian shows up and takes the choice out of your hands?"

The Doctor crossed to the table and kissed Lavinia on the top of the head. "Thank you for reminding me of that. Good-bye, K-9." He didn't wait for a response from either of them, just strode jauntily through the kitchen door. The two watched as he crossed the small stretch of yard, opened the TARDIS, and disappeared inside. They continued to watch as the TARDIS, with its usual noisy ratchet and flash of light, disappeared as well.

"All that's left is the waiting," Lavinia murmured.

"Affirmative, Mistress."


	7. Comeback

**oOo**

The TARDIS dematerialized. On Earth, in South Croydon, the household waited for the TARDIS to reappear. And waited.

Finally, after a week, Tegan was given a sedative by Harry, in order to ensure at least a single night's sleep. Tegan acquiesced only after being reassured that a) Lanie would be watched over and b) she would be woken up immediately if the Doctor returned.

K-9 was put on twenty-four hour alert for any incoming transmissions. His sturdy form trundling around the edges of the property became a familiar sight as he tirelessly scanned for signs of the TARDIS, as requested. Lanie frequently managed to find her way into the backyard through mysterious means, much to her mother's exasperation, but once it was clear she was only crawling after K-9, Tegan's distress lessened. After all, a mechanical dog with a computer for a brain and a laser in its nose made an ideal body guard.

The Doctor did not reappear for another six weeks. Tegan went from frantic to sullen to accepting. Only the fact that her daughter needed her kept her from giving in fully to the despair that regularly threatened to overwhelm her. And the vindication. "I knew this would happen," became her private mantra.

When the Doctor finally did show up, only K-9 was there to greet him as the TARDIS wheezed its way back into corporeal existence. Sarah Jane was away on assignment, Harry was on maneuvers, and Lavinia, Tegan and Lanie were sound asleep as the Doctor walked through the darkened garden and opened the kitchen door. "Master."

"K-9." The Doctor sounded weary. "Time and date, if you please; I've been having...issues...with the TARDIS." He did not elaborate, nor did K-9, literalist that he was, ask for such elaboration.

"3:07 a.m. local time, 12 July 1985."

The Doctor seemed to have difficulty digesting the length of time he'd been gone; he asked K-9 to repeat the date, then shook his head. "Seven weeks, is it? I believe it will be at least that long before Tegan stops saying 'I told you so.'" He glanced down sharply at K-9. "She's still here? Tegan and the baby are still here?" He had a sudden fear that she'd taken his absence for abandonment and brought Lanie somewhere else to live.

"Mistress Tegan and Mistress Elaina are currently asleep in the quarters assigned to them. Mistress Lavinia is also asleep. Mistress Sarah Jane and Master Harry are currently elsewhere but will return at an unspecified point within the next two days." K-9 sounded apologetic. "I am unable to confirm their return with any more specificity as their itineraries were--"

"That's fine," the Doctor interrupted, sounding relieved. "I'll just go see Tegan and Lanie. Before I have to leave again," he muttered angrily.

**oOo**

The bedroom door creaked open and Tegan came instantly awake. Harry only insisted she take sedatives on particularly bad nights. "Lavinia? Has there been news?"

"Sh, no, Tegan, it's me."

Tegan was out of the bed and in his arms before he finished speaking, holding him tightly before abruptly shoving him back into the hall and closing the bedroom door behind her. In the dim lighting he could see the storm gathering in her face, and swept her up for a heartfelt kiss before the angry words hovering behind her lips could burst free.

"I'm sorry, it was the White Guardian, exactly as you thought, you were right, can we not fight, at least not just yet? I'd really like to see Lanie, if you don't mind. I promise not to wake her." The Doctor's words came in a rush, but Tegan could hear the weary resignation in his voice and merely stepped aside so he could open the door.

"You don't have to worry about waking her; she's still the soundest sleeper in the house," Tegan reassured him, although she kept her voice low.

He nodded and quietly walked over to gaze down at his sleeping daughter, marveling at the changes even seven weeks had wrought in her face and form. She was, what, seven months old now? She stirred and mumbled something but never opened her eyes, even when he leaned down and kissed her gently on the top of her head. Was he hair longer? He couldn't tell. After another silent moment, the Doctor rejoined Tegan in the hall, closing the door behind him. "I could use a cup of tea."

"Sounds good to me. Should I wake Lavinia?"

The Doctor shook his head and reached for Tegan's hand, clasping it in his as they descended the stairs together. "Later. Right now I just want to spend some time with you, even if you yell at me the entire time."

"That's the second time you've accused me of wanting to pick a fight," Tegan said crossly. She hitched her nightgown sleeve up from where it had slid down her shoulder. "I've barely said a word. Give me a little credit!" She tucked her arm through his as they entered the kitchen, releasing him only reluctantly when he turned on the light and started the kettle. "I'll save the 'I told you so's' until later. Right now, I'm just glad you're back and safe. I'm ready to hear what happened to you as soon as you're ready to tell me." She folded her arms on the table, hands clasped demurely, and shut her mouth with a snap.

The Doctor smiled as he pulled two teacups out of the cabinet. "There isn't much to tell, actually."

Tegan threw him a disbelieving look, but as promised remained silent. "All right," the Doctor conceded, "perhaps there is a thing or two to tell..."


	8. Pause for Effect

**Part 2: Chance and History**

"_Imagine a Teeter-totter, Chance sitting on one end, History on the other, swinging back and forth-Chance up one moment, then Chance down and History up. The Dark Powers love that. They throw their weight at the right moment on a side that's already headed down, and either Chance or History ends permanently up. One way we get Chaos. The other we get Predictability and an end to Romance, Art, Magic and everything else interesting." – Gordon R. Dickson, "The Dragon and the George"_

The White Guardian appeared as soon as the TARDIS dematerialized. He didn't bother with the Edwardian window dressing this time, just showed up in the Console Room in a blaze of white light. The Doctor looked at him, unsurprised, as the TARDIS lighting flickered and the Time Rotor went still. "Ah. Just as Tegan predicted," he murmured. "I do wish you could find a way to contact me that didn't involve depleting my power source."

The lighting flickered again, nearly died, then made a valiant rallying attempt and snapped back to full brilliance. Briefly. The room was nearly plunged into full darkness before the power settled back to about half its former brilliance, leaving the console room bathed in a dim glow. This time, the Doctor _was_ surprised to see the Black Guardian materialize, looking disgruntled. The Doctor gazed back and forth from one to the other. "To what do I owe this…honor?" He sounded dubious.

Before anyone deigned to answer, there was another flash of light and suddenly the Master was there as well, staring around wildly and snarling a curse once he realized where he was. "Why have you brought me here?" he demanded, fists clenched, brow lowered in rage.

His demeanor altered visibly as soon as he saw the two Guardians flanking him. With a startled curse, he edged around the console to stand next to the Doctor, who found himself smothering a grin at his old enemy's reaction. "Strength in numbers, eh?" he couldn't help remarking. Snidely.

The White Guardian spoke before the Master could respond. "Enough! We did not bring you here so we could watch you fight."

"Not this time," the Black Guardian added cryptically.

The White Guardian ignored him, concentrating on the two Time Lords standing before him. "We have brought you together because there are problems with your Time Streams. Someone has been meddling, and it isn't us."

The Master's eyes narrowed. "So send us back where you believe we 'belong,' if you please."

"Not until we discover who has been meddling and why," the White Guardian replied. "Or rather, until you do. We have already intervened far more directly than is generally good for the Universe."

"Speak for yourself," the Black Guardian snarled. "I would personally rather just tell them what we want them to do and _make_ them do it." He raised one hand, fingers poised as if to snap, and both the Doctor and the Master tensed.

"That won't work, not this time, and you know it," the White Guardian shot back, looking annoyed. The Doctor filed that bit of information for future reference; he would have to see if there were some discreet way to discover when such methods _had_ worked.

"If you would be so good as to simply explain what the problems are," he interrupted firmly, "then perhaps we would be willing to work on them." Fascinating as this look at the dynamic between the two Guardians was, it was also keeping him from returning home. He winced at the thought, knowing full well how Tegan was going to react to his absence.

"Very well," the White Guardian conceded, bestowing a sharp glance upon his counterpart. "As I already told you, Doctor, you were never meant to intercept that transmission--"

"Yes, yes," the Doctor interrupted hastily. "I understand that is the point of departure between what you consider my 'proper' reality and the one I'm currently existing in. Have you learned something new?" He knew he was babbling, but he had no desire for the White Guardian to reveal Lanie's existence to the Master.

"Only that something very similar has happened to you before."

The Doctor blinked, not having expected that answer. Nor, apparently, did the Master, who spoke up. "To him? Or to both of us?"

The two Guardians exchanged glances. If the Doctor didn't know any better, he'd have classified them as "uncertain." When the White Guardian finally spoke, it was with what appeared to be a great deal of reluctance. "When something of this magnitude happens to one of you, it happens to both of you."

"I presume you're about to share the reason behind that intriguing statement," the Master put in, arms crossed, expression still glowering but also with an air of anticipation. As if something he'd always suspected was about to be confirmed. The Doctor could tell, because he found himself feeling the same mixture of trepidation and eagerness. "Don't tell me the Doctor and I have shared destinies or some such nonsense."

"I told you they were the right choices." The Black Guardian sounded extremely pleased. "At least mine is." He smiled benevolently at the Master. Who moved back a step without seeming to realize he'd done so. "Well, go on, they're already guessing at the truth. Tell them the rest."

"Shared destinies is one way of looking at it," the White Guardian said after another sharp glance at his counterpart. "Have you ever heard the title…Champions?"


	9. Champions

"Numerous times," the Doctor snapped. "Pray tell under what context."

"How many times have you visited Atlantis?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" was the Doctor's irritated counter-question.

"Search your memories, Doctor," the White Guardian urged. "How many times have you visited Atlantis?"

"Twice," the Doctor said after a moment's hesitation. He presumed this line of questioning was leading somewhere, although he couldn't quite figure it out. Not yet.

"And how many times have you witnessed its destruction?"

"Twice," the Doctor automatically replied, then stopped as he realized what he'd just said. "I saw Atlantis destroyed twice," he said slowly.

"And you?" The White Guardian turned to the Master. "Did you not also witness the destruction of Atlantis?"

"Only the one time." The Master glowered at the Doctor.

"You _caused_ its destruction," came the expected correction, followed immediately by a deepening frown. "No, wait, Zaroff destroyed it, I distinctly remember…"

"It was Kronos, not I who destroyed Atlantis," the Master said at the same time. He, too, seemed struck by what he'd just said. "But Azal told me he'd been responsible for its destruction, he or his people…" His voice trailed off in confusion.

"I take it you are experiencing multiple sets of memories dealing with multiple explanations for the destruction of the same place?" The White Guardian asked, while watching both men intently.

The Doctor glanced at the Master. "Well, I can't vouch personally for Azal's version of the story."

"Nor can I," the Master agreed calmly. "I can merely confirm that we were involved in a conversation in which he implied his responsibility. _Strongly_ implied."

"A conversation that no doubt contributed to nearly causing the destruction of Earth," the Doctor snorted in disgust.

"A point which is currently irrelevant," the Master put in smoothly. "The question at hand is not past actions but past memories. Are you certain you are not simply remembering separate destructions of similar sounding places? Regenerative trauma causes all kinds of memory problems," the Master said innocently. Twisting the knife.

The Black Guardian glowered at them both. "Ridiculous!" he snapped. "Doctor, you recall the destruction of Atlantis with perfect clarity. _Both_ times it happened. Just as you recall the multiple times the Dalek race has been destroyed. By you." He stabbed an accusing finger in the Time Lord's direction.

"That is more information than they need to deal with the current situation!" The White Guardian was literally incandescent with fury, and the TARDIS lights flickered madly for a moment before settling back into their previous dim levels.

"You were always too cautious, too afraid of risks," the Black Guardian sneered, unimpressed by his counterpart's celestial tantrum. "I've always said they'd be far more effective in their roles if they knew the full extent of the parts they play!"

"Champions," the Doctor said in a loud voice. "What have conflicting memories of the same apparent event to do with Champions? Exactly?"

The White Guardian sighed. "Very well, since it appears I have no choice," he glared at the Black Guardian, who studiously ignored him, "I will explain. This is something neither of you were meant to know. Part of your value has always been the very unwitting nature of your cooperation. First, I want you to understand that you were never forced to do anything against your nature, nor were any of your actions directly influenced by myself or anyone else. You were sent where you needed to be, but the actions you took upon arrival were completely your own."

The Doctor nodded his understanding, and his acceptance. He sensed that, unlike past dealings with the White Guardian, this time nothing was being held back, no information was being kept from him. What he had begun to suspect was now being confirmed.

The Master, however, seemed less than pleased by the revelation. "Poppycock!" he snarled. "I am no one's pawn, and never have been--"

The Black Guardian's sinister laugh cut him short. "Only the pawn of destiny, 'Master,' only the pawn of chaos. Ends which you willingly serve; did you truly think you craved mere power?" He said the word as if it left a bad taste in his mouth. "What you crave is destruction, just as what the Doctor craves is order. That is why you were ideal candidates to become Champions."

"Champions with joined destinies." The White Guardian picked up the narrative thread. "Why do you think he constantly escapes certain death?" He nodded at the Master. "No matter how often you think you've taken care of him for good, he reappears. And the same for you; every time he sets a trap or tries to kill you, you escape. Sometimes in complete defiance of logic."

"So either we both live or we both die, is that it?" The Master still sounded upset, but intrigued at the same time. "Is that what you meant by joined destinies?"

The White Guardian nodded. "That is the way it has always been. There were many Champions before you, and there will be many after you. One of the reasons you were chosen is the unique nature of a Time Lord's non-linear existence. It is not always the optimal choice, but we are not the ones making the selection, merely the ones monitoring the temporal status of the universe. Making sure you end up where you need to be."

"So who makes the selection?" the Master asked, eyes narrowed, obviously running through choices in his mind.

"No one you've ever encountered, or ever will," the White Guardian said coldly. "Either of you." There was a tone of finality in his voice that gave even the Master pause. "If I may continue?"

The Master gathered himself enough to offer a "please do" gesture with his arms, but the Doctor knew him well enough to recognize when he was running purely on bluff. He would have found it amusing if he weren't doing the exact same thing.

"There is a balance in the universe--indeed, in all the universes--that must be maintained," the White Guardian went on. "The force we call 'Evil' exists to upset the balance, to keep things from falling into entropic complacency; the force we call 'Good' exists to combat Evil, to keep it from destroying the universal balance. That," he added, "is why Logopolis was allowed to be created. Not to keep the universe in existence past its original lifespan, but to correct an error that caused the end of the universe to arrive far ahead of its natural course. And that is why you have conflicting memories regarding the destruction of Atlantis. Both events occurred, both timelines existed, but as far as the rest of the universe is concerned, only one event happened in the 'true' timeline."

"And in both cases we were guided to those points of divergence by you, did whatever was necessary to correct things, and you let us go off on our merry ways, is that it?" The Doctor sounded disgusted. "If you really did leave us to our own devices once we arrived at these crisis points, how do you know that we wouldn't just make things worse?"

"Because you are the Champions," the White Guardian replied, unfazed by the Doctor's growing anger, the Master's obvious dissatisfaction. "When you left the crisis point, the universe rebounded back to its original shape. A shape that even Time Lords cannot see, not in its entirety," he added, correctly anticipating their next question.

"So there it is," the Black Guardian said. "Now that you are aware of the situation, you must also be aware that it is your destiny to correct it."

"I was perfectly happy with the way things were going," the Doctor muttered peevishly. "And if the problem is mine to correct, then why was _he_ brought here?" He jerked his head toward the Master.

"Sometimes the balance requires a favorable outcome, sometimes a...less favorable one," was the White Guardian's ominous response. "If you were to be made aware of your status in the grand scheme of things, no matter how indirectly, then so must your counterpart. The Champion of Chaos, the Champion of Order. All must remain in balance."

"Someone else must know about our status as so-called 'Champions,' if neither of you interfered," the Doctor muttered. "But who?" He folded his arms tightly across his chest. "Could it be whatever entity selected us in the first place?"

"Interference by such an 'entity,' as you call it, is impossible." That was the Black Guardian, sounding even more impatient. "Its quantum reality is predicated on the need for Champions to be selected; until such times, it exists only as a state of potentiality, outside of temporal and universal boundaries."

"Look at your own TARDIS projections, if you require further proof that we are telling the truth," the White Guardian said, steering the discussion firmly back on track. "You dematerialized in order to make a comparison, did you not? Do so; we will not interfere. Draw your own conclusions. You too," he added, looking at the Master. "We will return you to your TARDIS so you can perform your own research. You will see." With that, he vanished, the Black Guardian disappearing at almost the same moment.

The Doctor turned to look at the Master, sighing as he, too vanished. "And then there was one," he muttered to himself. He moved reluctantly to the TARDIS console, setting up the parameters for the comparison he hoped against hope would prove the Guardians wrong, at least as far as the effect his time on Earth was having on the larger multiverse.

"Here's where you were," he muttered, pressing a series of buttons. The white lights of his original projection sprang into existence; a few keystrokes later and the red of the extrapolated universal temporal shifts joined the first set of lights. "And now for the actual reality out there." He hesitated, then pushed the button to bring a third grouping into view. A set of blue lights joined the first two, and the Doctor's shoulders sagged as he saw the projected temporal drift. "A .002 percent deviation from expected norm," he muttered. "Dammit, they're right; something's off."

The crucial piece of information he was missing appeared to be who had set this chain of events into motion, and why. Not the Guardians, although he dearly wanted to blame them. Not the Master, although he was the obvious choice. Not for any particular reason, just that he was _always_ the obvious choice. But if not them, then who?

"So who did it?" he asked aloud.

"I did."


	10. An Exercise in Speculation

**oOo**

"So who was it?" Tegan wasn't sure she followed everything the Doctor had just told her, especially the whole "universal champions" thing, and she was positive she didn't understand why the Doctor being on Earth was mucking things up elsewhere, but she did know a dramatic pause when she heard one. Before he could continue, however, the kitchen door opened and Lavinia came into the room, stopping short when she saw the Doctor.

"You're back!" She thrust her hands into the pockets of her comfortable blue robe, starting as the swinging door bumped her gently in the rear. She stepped over to the table, pulling her hands out and placing them on the back of the nearest chair, the one opposite Tegan's.

"Yes." The Doctor glanced over at Tegan, who was obviously dying for him to finish his story, then over at Lavinia, who was obviously dying to hear the entire thing. He sighed. "Tegan, would you mind if I…"

"White and Black Guardians hijacking the TARDIS, the Master and the Doctor sharing cosmic destinies as universal Champions, the universe out of whack, someone mucking about with the Doctor's personal timeline, and him just about to tell me who it was," Tegan blurted out.

Lavinia blinked, then sat down. Slowly. "I suppose that's the short version." She turned her attention to the Doctor. "Very well then. Who was it?"

"It was me." The two women stared at him with identical puzzled expressions. "One of my future selves, to be exact, although he wouldn't tell me which one."

"What did he look like?" Tegan asked, unable to resist the temptation.

"Short, fair skinned, dark hair, subjective age about 10 years older than I currently appear with a slight Scottish accent," the Doctor replied promptly, having expected this very question. "Arrogant. Traveling with a young lady named Ace, a teenager from late 20th century Earth, I'd guess, from her clothing and tendency toward that period's slang." He smiled at Tegan. "A girl with a cocky attitude and an unstoppable mouth, not too different to someone else I know…"

"Yes, great, lovely to hear I'm replaceable," Tegan grumbled, but both the Doctor and Lavinia could hear the real pain in her voice. She brushed aside Lavinia's comforting touch on her shoulder but returned the Doctor's gentle squeeze of her hand. "So your future self is responsible for this? Why?"

"He won't tell me." The Doctor frowned. "All he will say is that he'll be back for me sometime in the next two days and that there's somewhere I need to go and something I need to do, but he won't tell me what. I learned more from the Guardians than that closed-mouth little…" He trailed off sheepishly as he realized he was essentially calling himself names. "But he did say that by doing whatever it is he wants me to do, it will keep the Guardians out of our hair."

Tegan's eyes filled with hope. "For good?"

The Doctor shrugged uncomfortably. "Well, you know. For now."

Lavinia watched through sympathetic eyes as Tegan's shoulders slumped. "I guess that's the most we can expect," she mumbled. "Especially after that whole 'Universal Champions' thing."

Lavinia's attention returned to the Doctor. "Yes, do tell me about this 'Universal Champions' thing," she urged, settling back more comfortably in her chair. "I'm dying to hear about it."

**oOo**

Harry and Sarah Jane were eager to hear about it as well. Returning early from their various assignments, first Harry after lunch then Sarah Jane about an hour later, they were thrilled to see that the Doctor had returned and wasted no time in plying him with questions. Questions he had very few answers to. Which meant, of course, that speculation as to exactly what his future self had in mind for him was rampant. "Perhaps he means to take your place; you know, go round doing everything this you is supposed to be doing, at least as far as the Guardians are concerned," Sarah Jane suggested at dinner that night.

"Convenient as that might be for me, it would only serve to set his own universal timetable askew, if there really is such a thing," was the disheartening reply. The Doctor offered a charming smile as consolation. "It's rather a clever idea, though."

"Have we asked K-9 to analyze the probabilities yet?" That was Harry, speaking around a mouthful of mashed potatoes.

"He says there are too many variables." Another disheartening reply, another smile, this one more wry than charming. "I think he's just avoiding the work; last time we saw him, he was busy showing Lanie her colors, using a projection onto the back wall of the house."

Actually, the mechanical dog had been explaining the scientific theory behind the spectrum to her, but to Lanie's distracted parents it was just a group of colors on the wall keeping their daughter happy--and out of their hair as they spent the afternoon trying to sort things out. Then, of course Harry and, not too much later, Sarah Jane had put in their appearances; explanations had been, once again, tendered, and the speculation continued right up to the preparation of dinner. Lavinia had put her foot down at that point, practically ordering them to give it a rest. "We'll all think better on full stomachs," she'd said, setting them each to various tasks.

Tegan and the Doctor had been excused only long enough to get Lanie her bath and put her to bed. The sight of the Doctor, cheerfully setting the table, had given Tegan pause. She'd never expected to see him in such domestic settings, certainly not looking so comfortable in them. It just made her angrier at the Guardians and his as-yet unseen future self for trying to pull him away from a place where he truly seemed at peace. No disasters, no invading hordes, just a nice little vacation from the usual chaos. "I don't expect to keep him forever," she muttered as she brought the rubbish out to the dustbin and slammed the lid down on it. "Just long enough to raise Lanie, that's all I ask. And maybe a bit more," she added, scanning the skies defiantly. "I won't last forever, no one needs to tell me that; you can have him after we're done with him!"

Lavinia had noticed the stubborn set of her houseguest's chin on her return to the kitchen, but had kept any comments to herself. She recognized Tegan's mood and knew exactly what was causing it. The same thing that was causing her to singe her fingers every time she reached for a pan and forgot the protective cloth, not her usual habit. The same thing that kept Harry and Sarah Jane muttering quietly to themselves as they peeled potatoes and carrots, whenever they thought she wasn't paying attention. Only the Doctor seemed immune, but he could play it very close to the vest when he wanted to.

"At any rate, it's no good trying to figure this out," the Doctor finally said as they all more or less finished dinner. Tegan had gone back to merely picking at her food, with Harry keeping a weather eye on her and Sarah Jane occasionally nudging her in the arm to remind her to eat, but everyone else had at least forced themselves to finish. Even the Doctor. He scooted his chair back, reaching to take Tegan's still-full plate and stack it on top of his before bringing them over to the sink. "As I may have mentioned, my future self plays things very close to the vest." He unconsciously echoed Lavinia's earlier thoughts, giving her a bit of a start. "I'll know when he returns what exactly he expects of me, and that'll have to be soon enough."

**oOo**

"I can't believe you're just giving up," Tegan grumbled later as they climbed into bed. Although the Doctor didn't need nearly as much sleep as she did, he made it a habit to join her whenever she retired, even if he usually ended up just lying there for a few hours, listening to her breathe. Occasionally he would quietly steal away to Lavinia's lab or the TARDIS to get some work done after Tegan was firmly asleep, but never without leaving her a note and definitely not tonight, his first and perhaps only night back. "It's not like you to just wait for someone else to solve the puzzle."

"Not even when the 'someone else' is me?" His voice was light, but his expression remained serious. "Don't worry, Tegan, I've far from given up. I just opted to keep my thoughts to myself. That way I don't end up sounding foolish if my speculation proves wrong."

Tegan glanced at him sharply. She'd started to lean her head on his shoulder, and now returned to a sitting position. "So you do have a theory?"

"Nothing so concrete as a theory," he corrected her, pulling her firmly into his embrace. After a brief hesitation, she yielded, nestling into his side and squirming her shoulder more comfortably under his arm. "More like the ghost of an idea that may very well turn out to be just that: a ghost, something of no substance and easily seen through."

He wasn't being entirely honest with Tegan, but he was honest enough with himself to admit that it wasn't just to spare her unnecessary discomfort; he was attempting to spare himself unnecessary discomfort as well. The last thing he'd done before he intercepted Lavinia's message had been to leave Turlough with his newfound family; the last thing he'd done before responding to the message had been to drop a protesting Peri back where he'd found her. Since it had been Turlough's choice to remain behind, he had a good idea as to which event had set things awry.

It would be interesting to see exactly what his future self's plan was to salvage this situation.

It would be even more interesting to see if he would be willing to go along with it.


	11. Talking To Himself

**oOo**

He wasn't dreaming, not exactly, because he wasn't exactly asleep. Nor was he fully awake. Lying next to Tegan, with her head resting comfortably on his shoulder, her arm draped across his waist, listening to her breathe, he'd fallen into something approximating a trance state. There had to be more he could learn from his visit by his future self; all he had to do was go over everything that had happened, both the things he had shared with Tegan and the others, and those he had not…

"_Who are you, and what are you doing on my TARDIS?" The Doctor eyed the stranger uneasily. Was this someone else sent by the Guardians, another enigma for him to factor into the seemingly endless calculations he was facing?_

_The stranger looked at him calmly. There was dark hair peeking from beneath the hat he wore, and he had an umbrella resting jauntily over one shoulder. "Who do you think I am?"_

"_I think," the Doctor began, then stopped, hesitating as he gazed at the newcomer through narrowed eyes. There was something about him… "I think you might be me," he finally said._

_The other Time Lord smiled. "Got it in one!"_

"_Hey, Professor, where are you?" A young girl pushed open the door to the Console Room. She was pretty, with brown eyes and dark brown hair pulled into a lopsided bun, wearing high-topped black sneakers, black bicycle shorts and a gray t-shirt under an oversized black jacket covered in patches and pins. She had a rucksack thrown casually over one shoulder that clanked as she dropped it on the floor next to the console. "Who's this?"_

"_He's me," both men automatically answered. _

_She looked from one to the other with a suspicious frown. "What's that supposed to mean?"_

_The Doctor's later self sighed. "Ace, allow me to introduce myself. My fifth self, to be exact."_

"_And which self are you, by the way?" the younger man asked, nodding his head in greeting to the young woman. Very young, now that he looked closely; not even out of her teens, if he was any judge._

"_One of the better ones," was the evasive response. "Trust me on that one," he muttered. "We're here for a specific purpose."_

"_Of course we are." It was Ace's turn to mutter. "So are we on his TARDIS or is he on ours?" She nodded at the rotor. "This thing hasn't stopped moving so neither have we. Or have we?"_

"_His TARDIS and 'ours' are one and the same," was the unhelpful reply offered by 'her' Doctor. "It just so happens that we are currently occupying the same space and time, a fact I deliberately caused to happen." He sounded smug._

_She gave him a blank stare. "Right. So if I swan off to look for my room, I'll find it?" Both men nodded. "Great. Nice meeting ya," she said to the Doctor's fifth self. "One day you'll fill me in on the whole regeneration thing, right? That's what you promised, Professor!" She scooped up the rucksack and headed back out the way she came._

"_All right, the audience is taken care of, we're alone. So what are you doing here?"_

"_Trying to save you a lot of trouble. Trying to save the universe a lot of trouble as well. You've already spoken to the Guardians, have you? Heard the whole 'savior of time' spiel?"_

"_Universal Champion spiel," his earlier self corrected. "But yes. They've only just left."_

"_Good. Then I've timed this correctly. There's something you're going to have to do to get things back the way the Guardians want it to, and a couple of days after you get back to Earth I'll be by to pick you up so you can do it." He suddenly looked uncomfortable. "It was a miscalculation on my part; I expected...well, never mind," he interrupted himself. "I've still got a few things to set into motion on my end--"_

"_What things? What do you mean, a miscalculation?" It was the fifth Doctor's turn to interrupt "himself" as he pounced on that particular word. Obviously his future self was the one who was meddling in his own timeline, but he still didn't know to what purpose. "It's bad enough having the Guardians ordering me about, I'll be damned if I'll let one of my future selves do the same!"_

"_You'll be damned if you don't!" His later self traded him glare for glare. "I don't have time for this nonsense. Just be ready when I return, and trust me when I say you'll be the better for it. The Guardians will no longer have any reason to interfere, time will be set back the way it's 'supposed' to be, and the deviations will correct themselves." He indicated the TARDIS console. "You'll be able to check it out for yourself when we're finished."_

"_And I'm just supposed to take your word on all this?" Why were his other selves always so disagreeable to deal with?_

"_I've already lived through it once," his other self replied. "That should tell you something."_

"_Since I've also apparently lived through the destruction of Atlantis twice it doesn't tell me anything," he snapped back, frustrated. Was this how others felt when he wasn't able to give them as detailed an answer as they wanted? He felt a sudden empathy with everyone from Susan and the Brigadier to Turlough and Tegan, everyone who had ever complained about him keeping them in the dark. "So you made sure I intercepted Lavinia Smith's message," he continued, deliberately keeping his voice under control. "Why?"_

"_I did it partly because I felt you deserved to know that Lanie existed, and partly because I was hoping for exactly the outcome that occurred."_

"_You wanted me to find out about my status as a universal Champion?" He hadn't expected that answer. "Why?"_

"_Because it always behooves us to recognize our place in the grand scheme of things. Even if it's a place we'd rather avoid."_

"_The Guardians would disagree with you," the Doctor pointed out, watching his future self closely._

"_The Guardians are wrong," the other Time Lord denied flatly. "No matter what they believe, this little side trip of yours, of ours, is essential. It was vital that you find out about Lanie, and not just because she's our daughter." He shut his mouth with an audible snap, as if he'd said more than he intended._

"_Why? What exactly do you expect me to do?" It would be nice if at least one of his questions was answered._

"_I expect you to go home. I expect you to come with me when I return for you. I expect you to be patient and trust me," was the reply, spoken in weary tones. He looked at himself, eye to eye, unblinking. "Do you think you can manage that much?"_

_His earlier self nodded, suddenly uncertain. There was something about the way his other self looked at him, a hint of sorrow behind the hard cast of his face, that kept him from pushing further. "Very well. In a few days. I presume you know where to find me?"_

"_Almost always," came the response, this time with a hint of a smile. He touched the tip of his umbrella to his hat and walked through the interior door to the TARDIS._

_When the Doctor looked for them after setting the coordinates for South Croydon, he saw no sign of them._


	12. Breakfast Interrupted

**oOo**

They appeared the next morning at breakfast, just as the Doctor had described them. Tegan was startled to realize how young Ace was, probably close to Adric's age, or the age he had been when he died. It was an uncomfortable thought that served to remind her why she was wary of bringing her daughter onto the TARDIS for any length of time.

"Ah, you're here," the Doctor said unnecessarily as he rose to his feet. He was holding Lanie, who stared at the newcomers suspiciously.

Ace looked startled, swiveling her head around to stare at the Doctor she knew with a questioning shake of her head. When he merely gave her a bland look, she turned back to his fifth self. "So who's the baby, then?"

"Her name is Lanie," her Doctor replied before the other one could. "She's Tegan's. Hallo, Tegan," he added, walking quickly toward her and taking her hand in his. "It's wonderful to see you again." With his back deliberately to Ace, he mouthed, "Please don't tell her."

Tegan looked startled, then cross. As her mouth opened, he leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek, breathing a quick message into her ear before releasing her hand and turning toward Sarah Jane: "I have my reasons. Please. I'll explain later."

Tegan closed her mouth slowly, trading concerned glances with Harry and Sarah Jane over the new Doctor's shoulder as he greeted them. Ace was being introduced to everyone, chattering a mile a minute and grinning happily when Lavinia offered her a plate of waffles and strawberries. "My favorite!" She wedged herself between Tegan and Sarah Jane on the bench, cheerfully digging in while the fifth Doctor handed Lanie over to Tegan.

Lanie amused herself by trying to grab Ace's fork, while Ace in turn seemed to have fun keeping it just out of the baby's reach. She yelped as she felt something nudging her foot; when she looked down and saw K-9, her eyes lit up. "You've got a robot dog, that's super! Can we get one?" When she turned to look for her Doctor, she frowned. "Professor?" She half-stood, not even noticing that Lanie had taken quiet advantage of her distraction to stuff several pieces of Ace's breakfast into her mouth.

"They went outside," Lavinia announced, nodding at the half-open door. "To confer. And the Doctor's the one who sent K-9 to us in the first place, so you might actually be able to get him to build you another. If you ask nicely."

Ace sat back down with a sulky cast to her face. "He never does, why should I?"

"Which one is he?" That was Sarah Jane, eyes sparkling with curiosity. "Which Doctor is he? Sixth? Seventh? Eleventh?"

Ace shrugged, returning her attention to her waffles. She glanced down at the plate, then over at Lanie, who stared back at her innocently. Only the smudge of syrup drooling down her chin gave her away. "Caught you," Ace said with a grin, offering her napkin. Lanie reached for it, but Tegan intercepted it and wiped her daughter's face before she could start chewing on it. Or ripping it to shreds and tossing it around the room. "I dunno," Ace finally answered the question. "I just found out he could do that, regenerate, I mean. He wouldn't answer me when I asked him. Just said he was the best of a bad lot."

Sarah Jane snorted undelicately. "They all believe that of themselves, and I should know; I've met four of them now. No," she corrected herself, "six. Tegan and I met his second and first selves once."

Tegan nodded. "The first was a tetchy old man, not that any of them were out to win prizes for congeniality."

"You were in the Gallifreyan Death Zone," Harry pointed out as he began clearing the table. "You, Sarah Jane, the Brigadier..."

"Turlough was there, and Susan..." Tegan's voice trailed off as she stared down at her daughter, her hands suddenly cold as ice. The others noticed the sudden pallor in her face; Harry hurried back to her but she waved him away. "I just realized...Susan. She kept calling him 'Grandfather,' the first Doctor, I mean. If she's really his granddaughter..." Her voice trailed off again, and this time she pushed her way off the bench. "I have to go," she muttered, swinging Lanie onto her hip and heading into the hallway.

"Is she all right?" Ace demanded, wide-eyed. Harry muttered something, Sarah Jane and Lavinia made excuses, and suddenly she was alone in the kitchen as the other three scattered, Harry and Sarah Jane racing outside, and Lavinia hurrying after Tegan. Well, not quite alone. Ace peered under the table again. K-9 was still there; his antennae ears swiveled as he tilted his head. "Oi, dog! K-9! Do you talk?"

"Affirmative."

Ace impatiently pushed back the bench and crouched on the floor next to the mechanical dog. "Do you know what's going on?" she demanded.

"Affirmative." K-9 edged back but Ace grabbed his neck. Since she had been identified to him by the Doctor as a friend, he allowed himself to be held captive, although his laser glowed warningly.

"Then start talking," Ace ordered. "Why's Tegan so upset about the Doctor having a granddaughter? And why won't mine tell anyone which one he is?"

K-9, not having been instructed to keep any information from her, began speaking, while Ace listened intently.

**oOo**

"Tegan?"

That was Lavinia, knocking gently at the door. Tegan looked at it, considering her options, then shrugged and called: "It's open!"

Lavinia poked her head into the room. Lanie was playing on the floor, while Tegan was curled up on the lounge chair, staring out the window. "I see you've gone into crisis mode," she said, nodding down at something Lavinia couldn't see. "Sent Harry and Sarah Jane to fetch the Doctor to make sure I don't go into a complete funk? Do you all really think I'm that fragile?" Her voice was bitter.

"You haven't always done a good job of taking bad news in stride." Lavinia's gentle tone took away much of the sting of the implied criticism. She sat next to Tegan, who allowed her comforting touch on her shoulder. "You know that."

"No, you're right," Tegan allowed, reaching up to pat Lavinia's hand. She continued to gaze down at Harry and Sarah Jane as they spoke to the two Doctors. The one she would always think of as "hers" looked up, making eye contact, and Tegan waved and blew him a shaky kiss. "I'm all right," she mouthed, knowing he couldn't hear her but could certainly read her lips. She turned back to Lavinia. "But that's not it, not this time. I'm not running away or planning on losing sleep over the idea that I met my own granddaughter when she was older than I am, although it will take a bit of getting used to! No, I just didn't want to blurt anything out in front of Ace."

Lavinia's relieved smile turned into a frown. "Why not?"

"Because the Doctor she came with doesn't want her to know, for some reason, that he's Lanie's father." Behind them, Lanie picked up her blocks and spelled out f-a-t-h-e-r, then e-n-i-g-m-a. Lavinia and Tegan heard her delighted laughter but didn't turn to look, too wrapped up in their conversation to stop for anything short of a tantrum. "So I left. Sorry to cause so much ruckus."

"It's our own faults for over-reacting." Lavinia's voice was wry. "You spent so much time in denial when you first arrived, and none of us wanted to upset you, not in your condition." This time she did look over at Lanie, Tegan's eyes automatically following hers, but she had knocked the blocks over and was shaking a rag doll instead.

"Yeah, well, things worked out." Tegan sounded as calm as she was claiming to be, so Lavinia relaxed a bit; maybe she wasn't just presenting a good front.

Tegan glanced out the window again, then stiffened. "Looks like the party's moving back inside," she announced. "We'd better be down there to see what's next on the agenda."

As Lavinia reached for Lanie, K-9 trundled over the threshold. "Mistress," he said, acknowledging Lavinia. He never called Tegan that, as she refused to answer to it and had scolded him over it on several occasions. Sarah Jane was a bit put out that Tegan could get him to stop when she'd been trying for years, but Lavinia just shrugged and told her to get over it. "Miss Jovanka." That was as informal as the mechanical dog seemed willing to go, and Tegan didn't push it.

"K-9, please keep an eye on Lanie," Tegan instructed. She knelt down and kissed her daughter. "You play with K-9, sweets," she said.

Lanie looked over at him. "Doggie!" she crowed, clapping her hands. She crawled over to her bookshelf and pulled out her favorite story. "Read!" She'd gained the dexterity recently to hold the pages and turn them when instructed, but would only do it for K-9.

"I've never understood why she finds his voice so soothing," Lavinia whispered as she and Tegan left the room. She waited while Tegan put up the baby gate, then they started down the stairs together.

"Me either," Tegan agreed with a shake of her head. "But did you hear her? She's already talking better than I did when I was a year old!"

"We should expect her to show some advanced capabilities," Lavinia replied, pushing open the kitchen door. "After all, her father is--" She came to a confused stop; she'd completely forgotten about Ace, who was sitting on the chair nearest the back door.

"Her father is a Time Lord," the younger woman finished for her. "Right? That's what your dog says."

Tegan and Lavinia exchanged distressed glances. "So much for keeping that to ourselves," Lanie's mother finally said. "We forgot to tell K-9 not to say anything."

"We didn't know we weren't _supposed_ to say anything," Lavinia reminded her, favoring Ace with a sharp glance. "I presume your Doctor had a reason for not wanting to tell you, young lady. He won't be pleased to know you've found out."

Ace appeared unconcerned. "The Professor probably thought I'd be embarrassed or tease him about it or something," was her opinion. "Don't worry, I won't let him know, least not till we're done with whatever it is he and your Doctor need to do."

"Well, there's no fear of any of us giving that secret away," Lavinia agreed.

Ace nodded. "Right, K-9 didn't know anything. I tried. And he doesn't know which one mine is, either." She sounded disappointed.

Tegan looked impressed. "I never thought to see if K-9 might know something," she admitted. "At least, not about what those two need to do!" At that moment, Harry and Sarah Jane came into the kitchen. "Where are they?" she asked, catching Harry by the arm. "I saw them head for the house ages ago!"

"They went into the TARDIS instead," Sarah Jane replied. "The new Doctor said not to worry, they weren't going to dematerialize, if only because he would catch holy hell from Ace if he left without her!"

"So he plans on letting me come along, eh? That's a switch; I thought he'd try to make me wait here while they went off on their adventure!" She glanced out the back door, as if expecting to hear the TARDIS dematerializing. They all did, and were only slightly reassured by its continued existence.


	13. Another Damned Goodbye

**oOo**

Inside the TARDIS, the two Doctors continued their interrupted conversation.

"Now will you tell me what you expect me to do?" The question was quietly asked, but there was a feeling of implacability about it. He wasn't doing another thing on his future self's say-so, not until he got some answers. The only reason he'd been willing to enter the TARDIS for this conversation was that it was, indeed "his" TARDIS; his future self had shown his own TARDIS sitting quietly behind a small grove of trees at the back of Lavinia's tidy garden.

"I expect you to remain on Earth for the next ten years and raise your daughter whilst I ensure that the timeline the Guardians are so concerned with remains intact." He spoke reluctantly, but he spoke.

"Ten years?" The Doctor's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "And then what?"

"And then you'll understand why things had to happen the way they are happening," his future self said softly. Sadly. "There's a great deal of tragedy in your future. I know, because for me it's in my past. Which is why I'm fighting so hard to give you those ten years. So I can remember them when I find the present…unbearable."

"That sounds ominous. But then, I can hardly expect thing to come up rosy when confronted with a future self, which presupposes my own demise," the Doctor replied, tension underlining every word, even in the face of his relaxed stance. Appearances, appearances, always appearances… "Nor when I've discovered a rather unsettling connection to the Master, the White and Black Guardians, and the entire bloody universe, for that matter." Ah, there was the visible expression of tension, the balled fists, the stiff posture, the mouth set in a hard, angry line.

The dark-haired man nodded. "Unfortunate, but unavoidable. And now it's time to fix things to everyone's satisfaction."

"That's a tall order," his blonder self retorted. "Especially since we seem to be talking about mutually exclusive points of view."

"Not entirely," his later self countered, sounding smug. "I've found a way to work around that."

"Which is?" the fifth Doctor prompted impatiently.

"We're taking this TARDIS and going back to the point in time when you told Peri you couldn't bring her with you," the Doctor's future self said. "Only this time, you'll agree to let her join you." He appeared to be waiting to see the effects of his words on his younger self.

"I don't think the quiet family life in South Croydon is what she'd consider an adventure." This was exactly what he'd expected to hear, and he let his other self know it by offering a slight smile.

His future self frowned, both at the flippant response and the knowing smile. "Don't be ridiculous; she's not going to come stay with you here. You're simply going to speak the words you were supposed to say. You're going to welcome her aboard the TARDIS."

"And then what? Don't tell me that's all I need to do to set time aright." The Doctor's tone was deliberately provocative, but his future self refused to be provoked.

"Actually, it is," he said simply. "Then, when you're ready to resume this vagabond life of ours, she'll be there, in exactly the same moment as when you left her."

His fifth self shifted uneasily. "You mean to freeze her, trap her in a moment of time?"

"Do you have a better idea? As you said, South Croydon is a pleasant holiday for us but hardly the adventure of a lifetime for her," his older self pointed out. "She'll remain on your TARDIS, invisible, and won't even notice the passage of time. It's the perfect solution. Unless you want to leave Tegan and the baby," he added, somewhat spitefully.

The fifth Doctor stiffened. "Of course not. You should know that."

"I do," his later self affirmed. "When I said this was the best solution, I wasn't just making it up as a I went along; I _know_ that it's the best solution. You'll have to trust me on this." He held eye contact, carefully refraining from any urge to make it telepathic as well. He'd managed to avoid any such contact the first time he and his fifth self had met and hoped to continue doing so. It was vital that his younger version remain unaware of the full scope of his meddling, past and yet to come.

The fifth Doctor was quiet for a long time, standing with his hands in his pockets and his chin tucked down, gazing at nothing. "Very well," he finally said, looking up at his counterpart. "I'm willing to go along with you on one condition."

His future self didn't so much as blink; apparently he'd been expecting this. "I'll explain everything to you once we've done it. I'll leave nothing out. You have my word."

"I have to say good-bye."

"Of course." He pulled the lever and let himself out.

Ace was standing there, apparently waiting for just this moment; she darted past him without a second glance and came to a stop by the Time Rotor. The fifth Doctor shook his head and continued into the house.

"Don't worry, Ace, I wasn't planning on leaving without you." The Doctor grinned, but Ace recognized the signs of strain.

"That's just because you need me to do something," she replied cheerfully. He gave her a sharp look, then a slow smile spread over his features, unforced this time. "I knew it!" Ace smacked her right fist into her open palm. "What is it, then?"

"You'll see when the time comes." Ace rolled her eyes at his evasive response, but it was what she'd expected to hear so she didn't push.

Back in the house, the Doctor was saying his good-byes. "At least this time we know it might be a while before you return," Sarah Jane murmured as she hugged him. He returned the hug, kissed Lavinia on the cheek, solemnly shook Harry's hand, then turned to Tegan.

"I'll bring Lanie down," Harry volunteered. Sarah Jane murmured something about helping him, then she and Lavinia, who offered no excuse, left the kitchen together.

"We seem to be spending an awful lot of time saying good-bye lately." Tegan's words tried to be flippant, but only ended up sounding forlorn.

"My future self assures me that if we do this, then we won't have to say good-bye again for a long time," the Doctor replied, taking her in his arms. He wasn't about to tell her about the ten-year limit they still had to face. He kissed her gently, lovingly. "If what he tells me is true, it's a simple matter of altering a single moment of time in my own past. That one thing will put the universe into the right shape, so to speak, as far as the Guardians are concerned."

"What if something goes wrong?" Tegan couldn't help asking. "What if the Master shows up? You said he's the other Champion, and he certainly takes a great deal of joy in ruining things for you."

The Doctor shook his head. "He won't, because he didn't. I told you, I'm returning to a single moment in time; he didn't alter it in the first place, I did, so he won't be there when I put it back the way the universe apparently thinks it should be."

"Right, if you say so." She looked and sounded unconvinced.

"Tegan, there are risks in everything we do," he pointed out. "Especially under these circumstances."

She sighed and leaned her head on his shoulder. "I know, I know. I've always known; you don't fall in love with a Time Lord and expect things to go smoothly."

"I suppose the same applies to falling in love with an Earth woman." The words came out easily, without conscious thought, but caused the same reaction in both speaker and listener; they froze, staring into each other's eyes with identical expressions of surprise. "Did I just say that?" the Doctor finally asked.

"You did," Tegan confirmed breathlessly. "My only question is, did you mean it?"

The Doctor tilted his head to one side, thinking about it. Thinking hard. "Yes," he finally said. "I meant it. I would never say something just because I thought you wanted to hear it. And I wasn't planning to say it, it just came out." He smiled, then laughed aloud. "Yes, I meant it. I love you. You make me feel younger than I have in centuries, you and Lanie." He pulled her close for another kiss, holding her tightly, feeling her joy as she held him just as tightly. "Now you say it," he whispered.

Tegan poked him on the shoulder. "You already know," she chided him. "I told you ages ago. I love you, I've loved you for a long time, you great idiot, and I'll keep loving you, no matter what." She sobered abruptly. "Even if you don't make it back to us," she said in a low voice, her eyes clouding.

"Oh, I'll make it back, you can count on that," the Doctor vowed. "I want to be around to see Lanie grow up."

"And teach her how to run the TARDIS and take her on trips to the moon and back," Tegan added, sounding resigned. But not upset, which the Doctor took as a good sign. "I know I can't keep her earth-bound forever, and I don't want to. I might even let you take me with you," she added. "Once all this is straightened out." She frowned. "The only thing I worry about is Susan."

"Susan?" The Doctor looked puzzled for a moment, but then his face cleared. "Oh, you mean how Susan ends up with my first self?" That hadn't occurred to him, and he kept his voice deliberately light as he answered her. "I suppose we'll just have to wait and see. After all it's difficult to worry about my granddaughter when her mother is still just a baby!" Not to mention the fact that his memories of that time weren't exactly easy to access.

"I guess," Tegan replied. She brightened. "At least now we know how she got her name!"

"We do?"

Tegan looked embarrassed. "I never finished telling you, did I?" She shook her head ruefully. "Sorry, I guess it just slipped my mind. Everyone else knows, of course, so I just sort of forgot." She grinned impishly. "Lanie's still a bit young for me to chastise her by calling her by all her names! She's Elaina Vanessa Susan, after my gran and my aunt and my mum…" Her voice trailed off as she realized the Doctor was staring at her, that his grasp on her waist had tightened almost painfully. "What is it, what's wrong?"

The Doctor found himself caught in the grip of a memory, from so long ago it almost seemed to belong to another person. Which, technically, it did. His first self to be exact.

"_I like Susan, it's a good name, even if it's not my first name. I'd rather you called me that, please."_

_They were in the TARDIS, that much was clear. Standing in the Console Room, facing each other. Was there someone else there? He couldn't tell, he only had eyes for the young lady who'd just been introduced to him as his granddaughter._

He deliberately shook off the memory. "Nothing," he lied. "Just thinking about what I have to do when I leave. Which I should do now," he added. "It's taking them rather a long time to bring Lanie down, don't you think?"

"On purpose, I'm sure," Tegan replied, but she was still staring at him with concern in her eyes. "Are you sure you're all right?"

He nodded. "I'm fine." He kissed her again. "I'll be back as soon as I can. Since we'll be in control of the TARDIS," he added, "there shouldn't be any temporal issues like there were when the Guardians hijacked her."

"All right," Tegan said. "Let's go find Lanie so you can say good-bye." She didn't say anything else, although he could see she wanted to press the issue.

He was glad she didn't. He had a few things to discuss with his future self, especially regarding the disquieting possibility that had just occurred to him. "_I expect you to remain on Earth for the next ten years and raise your daughter."_ Susan had been about 10 or 11 when she'd come to live with his first self on the TARDIS, he remembered that quite distinctly.

He was very interested in finding out what his future self knew about it.


	14. Baby Steps

_A/N: In case I've managed to confuse anyone, I've combined previous chapters 14 and 15. A new chapter 15 will make its appearance soon, promise!_

**Part 3: Setting Time Right**

_The time is out of joint; O cursed spite,_

_That ever I was born to set it right!_

William Shakespeare, Hamlet

The Doctor waited until after they'd taken care of Peri before confronting his future self. Neither of them wanted Ace to know what they were up to, although he suspected his later self had different reasons for his discretion. She had disappeared into the TARDIS interior as requested, but there was something about the anticipatory look on her face that made him suspect that there was more to this trip than just getting Peri safely on board.

That had been a tricky moment to navigate; sliding into the place occupied a split second sooner by an earlier version of his current self had been disorienting, to say the least, but it had gone smoothly. It had been even more disorienting watching the self that had been existing in that particular moment evaporate like a soap bubble, but he'd seen more disturbing things in his many lives; besides, his continued existence presupposed that versions' continued existence.

It had taken very little subjective time for him to do as his later self wanted him to do, welcoming Peri aboard after she made some comment about having three months of vacation left. In this timeline, he ignored the blinking light indicating an incoming communication; he already knew who that was. K-9, passing on an invitation from Lavinia Smith to come round for a visit. He remembered things quite differently; being distracted by the light once aboard the TARDIS, listening to it before gently telling Peri it wasn't a good time for him to take on a new traveling companion. "Especially after the bad end Kamelion's just come to," he remembered saying.

Now, none of that had happened, never mind his memories that told him it bloody well had, thank you. Instead, he'd said the magic words, his future self had waved the proverbial magic wand, and Peri appeared to have vanished, at least to the naked eye. To an eye used to examining things in a less linear manner, she remained visible, at least while squinting and concentrating, as a faint shimmer just to the left of the door. He'd avoided that spot, even while knowing that he couldn't affect her, nor she him, not until she was released and brought back fully into the timestream. "Three months indeed," had been his ironic comment. Ironic and guilt-laden. "Are you sure about this?" He didn't bother turning to look as the interior door to the Console Room opened, knowing who it would be.

His later self peered critically at the barely-visible shimmer. "As certain as I've been about anything in any of my lives. She'll be fine." He felt a twinge of the same guilt and swatted it away; in light of the bigger picture, not to mention her ultimate fate, Peri was better off like this, frozen as a potential in a not-instant of time, until she needed to come back into existence. In ten years, and not a second, not a _nano_-second, sooner.

He watched in silence as his earlier self dematerialized the TARDIS. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, his other self preempted him with an entirely unexpected question. "By the way, do you happen to know if my daughter is Susan?"

"What makes you think she might be?" he asked, stalling. Damn it, his earlier self wasn't supposed to ask about that! Another memory he would have to deal with...

"Because it can't be a coincidence that Susan arrived into our first self's life at the age of 10, and that I will have 10 years before being pulled back into my 'real' timeline--by what?" he asked, distracting himself for a second. "By the pull of history or by the interference of the Guardians?"

Ace walked into the Console Room as he began speaking, and he didn't bother to wait for her to leave, knowing full well that if he did, the momentum would be lost and his future self would have time to think of some way to avoid answering him. They both ignored her startled gasp, the way she screeched to a halt and stood between them, staring from one to the other.

"Is that what you meant by future tragedy?" he continued softly. "Something will happen to cause Lanie to live with our first self. Is it because I'll be forced to return to my 'true' timeline at that point?" That was as far as he could take it; he couldn't bring himself to ask about Tegan.

"Ace, if you wouldn't mind…"

"No way, Professor!" Ace glared at him. She'd allowed herself to be put off once, it wasn't happening again. Not if she had anything to say about it. "I already knew Lanie was your daughter, K-9 told me when I asked. I'm not going anywhere!" She refrained from mentioning that she had also been brought up to speed about who Susan was, at least as far as K-9 knew.

"She can stay," his fifth self put in quietly. "I'm not worried about an audience. Besides, she's already from my future, so it can hardly matter if she knows something that only exists in your past." Ah, sarcasm, defense mechanism of choice for more than one of the Doctor's selves.

"It matters a great deal if she knows," his future self disagreed, shooting an angry glance Ace's way. "She already knows far more about my past than I wanted her to. Not because it's none of her business, although it is," he shot her another glare. "But because it isn't safe for her to become too involved."

"If it wasn't safe then why didn't you leave me on Earth?" Ace traded him glare for glare. "I already know it's because you need me to do something. What?"

Her question hung challengingly in the air. She and the Doctor's fifth self looked at him expectantly. After a moment, his shoulders slumped and he sighed. "I wasn't quite ready to get into this just yet."

"Get into what?" That was his fifth self, looking seriously annoyed. "I thought we were finished. Time's been put to rights, hasn't it?" Mockery had supplanted sarcasm, and knowing that he deserved it for things already and not yet done didn't keep it from stinging.

He straightened his shoulders, reaching up to adjust his hat. "There is just one other thing…"

"I knew it." The words were quietly spoken, resigned. "I knew there had to be more to it. What?"

"Not what, who," his later self corrected. "The Master. In order for you to remain inactive for the next ten years, so must he."

"So much for telling me everything," his fifth self muttered angrily. "I suppose you have another plan?" He spat the word out distastefully.

He could be as angry as he wanted; at least he was distracted from his uncomfortable questions about Susan. For the moment; once this little situation was resolved, he knew his past self would once again bring up the subject. And he already had so much to deal with... "Of course," he replied. "I always have a plan."

**South Croydon**

"I've always been terrible at planning." Harry sounded apologetic, but Tegan only smiled.

"It's all right; so have I," she admitted. "Look, here comes the living proof!" Lanie crawled into the parlor, hard on K-9's metallic tail.

Harry laughed, and Tegan couldn't help but think how far along their friendship had come; when she first arrived on Earth and announced her status as unwed mother-to-be, he'd been disapproving, to say the least. Things had started to turn around, she reflected, about the time she asked him to stand as Lanie's godfather. And he'd become positively mellow since marrying Sarah Jane.

Not that he'd ever treated her poorly or been rude; he'd just had very old-fashioned ideas when it came to pregnancy outside of marriage. Not too different than Tegan's own family, back in Australia. The only one who she was willing to risk telling about Lanie was her grandfather, the historian Andrew Verney, and she'd finally worked up the courage to call him only after the Doctor embarked on his latest mission to fix things up.

He'd been thrilled, only mildly rebuking her for waiting so long, and eager to hear the rest of the story: "For, my dear, I'm sure there's more to the story, isn't there? Does it involve that handsome doctor friend of yours, perhaps?" Tegan had blushed, even over the phone; her grandfather had been more observant than she'd given him credit for.

That was the reason for Harry's apology. He'd offered to pick her grandfather up at the airport, only to discover that he'd already scheduled a surgery that same afternoon. Tegan was unwilling to leave the house, at least until the Doctor returned, and so Lavinia had volunteered to go in Harry's stead. "I shall hold up a great sign that says 'Lanie's Great-Grandfather'," she'd replied when Harry innocently asked her how she intended to catch his attention. Then she'd relented and reminded him that Tegan had given her a photograph, and out the door she marched.

Now Tegan was a nervous wreck. What if she'd made a mistake, what if her grandfather didn't understand as well as she thought he did? They'd never told him the Doctor was an alien, she realized. Only a time traveler. Or had they? She couldn't remember. Her last visit to Little Hodcomb had been chaotic, to say the least, but once the craziness was over they'd spent a marvelous afternoon together. Even Turlough had mellowed enough to be almost likable as they chatted with her grandfather.

"This is a big step," she admitted to Harry as they continued watching Lanie chase after K-9. Who appeared to be going deliberately slower than usual, even as he kept his tail carefully out of her reach. "How do you go about telling your family that your baby's father is an alien, and has the double circulatory system to prove it?"

"The same way you told your friends." That was Sarah Jane, just coming down the front stairs. She stepped carefully around Lanie and smiled at her patient chase of K-9. "You just do it. I'm glad you've finally made up your mind about it!"

"Well, about telling my grandfather," Tegan reminded her as she settled onto the sofa. Harry kissed his wife, waved good-bye to Tegan, edged past K-9 and stooped down to plant a fatherly kiss on Lanie's head. Lanie grunted but didn't look up; K-9 was so close…He scuttled behind the ottoman, once again eluding her. She sat back with a "thump," wailing her frustration.

"I don't see why that should be a problem." It was an old argument, one the two women had been sharing since Lanie's birth. "Just look at her, acting like any other baby that's had its candy taken!" She knelt down next to her goddaughter, trying to get her to calm down while Tegan watched in amused silence. Lanie's tantrums about K-9 usually passed on their own, but neither Lavinia nor Sarah Jane seemed capable of just letting the baby cry, as Harry generally advised her to do under these circumstances.

When Sarah Jane finally joined her on the sofa, Lanie was smiling and getting back on her knees. Her eyes had changed from blue to brown, but it was their size as much as their color that gave her what Lavinia pronounced "character," and if K-9 could see the way those eyes fixated on him, he might have reconsidered his decision to remain in place. His antennae rotated once, making a whirring sound, and Tegan received the distinct impression that he was being deliberately provocative. "I wonder if he's trying to teach her how to stalk him," she murmured.

"Affirmative." K-9 was moving as Lanie rounded the ottoman, crowing in triumph as she just touched the tip of his tail. "Mistress Lanie's motor skills have shown a .759 percent improvement since I began this course of training. I predict she will be walking within one terrestrial week." He moved slowly out of the room, Lanie following.

"Cheeky little bugger," was all Tegan said, to mask her sudden unease. Walking within a week? Lanie was only seven months old, after all! Still, K-9 was right; she was definitely moving better on her own than she had been even a few days earlier... "Maybe I'd better start letting her hold my fingers and walk more, she does seem to like it, even if she can't get where she wants to go as quickly."

Sarah Jane was staring after K-9 in bemusement. "Maybe you should," she agreed, looking back at Tegan. "Did K-9 just say he was training Lanie?"

"I've been relying on him as a babysitter an awful lot lately," Tegan admitted, her own eyes troubled. "But he's so good with her, and she adores him. But I thought he was just, well, keeping her out of trouble; I never realized he was taking a more active role!"

"Well, she could certainly do worse," Sarah Jane replied. "After all, her father is from an advanced alien race; it makes sense, if you look at it that way."

Tegan collapsed against the back of the sofa, groaning and covering her eyes with her hands. "Hell's teeth, what have I gotten myself into?"

"Motherhood," Sarah Jane replied firmly. "Never forget that. You fell in love, you had a baby, you're trying to deal with your relationship with your baby's father. Those are the parts that matter."

Tegan removed her hands and sat back up. "You're right. And my grandfather, God bless him, managed to take my traveling through space and time in stride, although you should have seen his face when the Doctor showed him the inside of the TARDIS!" She conveniently forgot her own terror upon first entering the Doctor's time machine as she jumped to her feet. "I'd better make sure the study is ready." That had been the only room available for a guest to sleep in, and Lavinia and Tegan had spent a few hours that morning rearranging the furniture. Or at least directing Harry in doing so while Sarah Jane had been out on another reporting assignment.

Sarah Jane also rose to her feet. "The study is fine," she said firmly, taking Tegan by the wrist and pulling her toward the kitchen. "Aunt Lavinia will be back with your grandfather in a few hours, Lanie is having fun being 'trained' by K-9, and you and I are due for a nice cuppa about now." She grinned. "Besides, I want to pick your brains; I'm thinking about doing an article on your grandfather's work as an historian and I want some background information. What on earth is he doing living in Little Hodcombe, anyway? Why did he leave Australia?" She continued to ply Tegan with questions as they entered the kitchen.

In the front hall, Lanie chuckled happily as she finally managed to grab K-9's tail and hold it with both hands. "Good doggie!"


	15. Hidey Hole

**The TARDIS**

"Well?" the fifth Doctor prompted. "What's this plan? And how exactly does it involve Ace?"

"As a decoy, actually."

His fifth self blinked rapidly, the only sign of his dismay. "Ah. That was...exceedingly honest."

"I believe the word you're looking for is 'brutally'," his later self corrected. "Brutally honest."

"That too."

"Here, what's all this about decoys?" Ace broke in indignantly. She hadn't shifted position since entering the Console Room, but now she backed up. Just a step, just enough to show her unease with the sudden turn the conversation had taken.

"I thought it sounded more dignified than 'distraction,'" her traveling companion replied, noting the movement and turning to face her directly. Offering reassurance through his body language as much as his words. "I don't make this request lightly, Ace, and make no mistake; it is a request." His eyes crinkled as he smiled. Offering further reassurance.

"Well, then what do I have to do? And why can't he do it, or you?" She jerked her head at his younger self, who wisely remained out of it; Ace wasn't his companion to convince.

"Because we are going to need to concentrate very hard, using both our minds, to trap the Master the way we...want to." He almost said, "the way we trapped Peri." He and his past self both agreed on that; Ace must never hear what they'd done. Open-minded as she was, they both suspected it would still horrify her. Possibly even frighten her, if only because it infringed on the "you and me against the universe" camaraderie they currently shared; if he could do it to one inconvenient companion, she might wonder what was stopping him from doing it to another. All speculation, but solidly based. For all her sterling qualities, and she had many, Ace was still fundamentally human in her outlook on the universe. And she believed firmly that you didn't turn on your mates. No matter how dire the circumstances.

"And you need me to keep his attention while you set him up?" He nodded. "Count me in, then." Her voice was resolute.

"I object," his fifth self started to say.

"Of course you do. So do I," his later self replied. "But we both know it's the best way. To ensure he doesn't make any 'miraculous' escapes, we need to trap him in the space between one moment and the next, with him none the wiser that any time has passed at all until he's released." He waxed poetic purely for Ace's sake; the sour look on his other self's face told him that a strictly scientific description would have suited him just fine. Time to jiggle the carrot a little... "If we put a time limit on it, so his release coincides with our time limit, then the Guardians can't object." He used his most persuasive tone. "While you're both, er, indisposed, I'll be constantly monitoring for deviations from the universal norm. Just in case."

"I'm OK with it," Ace rushed to reassure the other Doctor, hefting her knapsack. "I've got a back-up plan."

"Nitro-nine," her Doctor put in dryly. "Not exactly appropriate to the situation."

His fifth self was pacing rapidly, hands in pockets, brow furrowed. "And how did I end up in this situation, exactly?" he asked, then shook his head. "Never mind." He stopped pacing and looked from one to the other. His future self appeared to be something of a manipulator, but he still balanced his actions by choosing traveling companions who felt free to voice their objections or opinions, who were perfectly capable of thinking for themselves. Ace was no pushover, and if she trusted his future self enough to allow herself to be used as a decoy, then the least he could do was offer that same level of trust. "All right. I presume you know how to find our mutual 'friend'?"

"Of course." He indicated the TARDIS console. "It's just a hop, skip and a jump away to the southern continent."

His fifth self jerked as if struck. "What, here? On Sarn? He was just burnt up--no, I suppose he wasn't," he corrected himself. "But he was certainly giving a good impersonation of a man being burnt up." A man he'd stoically watched being burnt up, ignoring the piteous cries for help. He supposed he must have known, deep down, that this wasn't truly the end of the Master. "What did happen to him then?"

"Against all logic, against all evidence, he survived, thanks in no small part to meddling on the part of the Guardians." And thanks in no small part to his ruthless bargaining with said Guardians, the Master was currently lying in a state of semi-consciousness on the other side of the planet. "Dematerialize us, if you please, and take us to these coordinates." He fished around in his pocket, mumbling irascibly until he found what he was looking for. A small notebook and pencil stub, both looking much the worse for wear. He flipped through the pages until he found the one he wanted, then presented it to his past self. Who received it dubiously, but did as he was asked.

Ace waited impatiently by the exterior door, jiggling from foot to foot and whistling aimlessly to herself. Both versions of the Doctor noted the way she seemed to avoid the left-hand side, and each sternly told himself it wasn't because she sensed anything off about it.

That would be impossible.

**oOo**

The TARDIS door opened on the unprepossessing landscape of Sarn's southern continent. Although geologically as unstable as the continent they'd just left, there was currently no volcanic activity, which disappointed Ace no end. "I've never seen a really good lava flow," she complained. "Thought this was the place to go."

"I'll take you to Hawaii after we're done with all this," her traveling companion promised absently. He peered around, obviously looking for something amid the tumble of rocks at the base of the hill the TARDIS had materialized on. "This way, I believe," he said, moving briskly toward the next hill, a rock-strewn slope several hundred meters away.

Ace bounded to his side, and his fifth self followed more slowly, picking his way carefully across the loose scree at the foot of the hill. It still felt odd being here; as far as the natives and former Trion political prisoners were concerned--including Turlough--he'd just left. No, he corrected himself, he and Peri had just left. Kamelion had just died. And he had intercepted a message that sent him back to Earth, depositing Peri where he found her, or somewhere quite nearby, Morocco, was it? Yet at the same time he hadn't set foot on this planet in months. Oh, how he _loathed_ paradoxes.

His future self had paused half-way up the hillside; there, hidden in the shadows of some large, protruding boulders, was a narrow cleft from which a cool breeze was generated. "Here we are, the Master's current hidey-hole."

Ace was crouched down, trying to get some idea of the size of the entrance. "Looks like a bit of a squeeze." Her eyes lit up as she turned toward the two Time Lords. "I could blow it up a bit, make it wider!" Her hand strayed toward her knapsack.

"Absolutely not!" The Doctor's future self thundered. "You'll bring the whole thing down, and us with it."

"Just a thought," she muttered. "Since I'm putting myself in harm's way and all." She looked back at the entrance. "Shall I go first, then?"

"It should be safe enough; the Master still hasn't fully recovered, but if he sees me, or rather," the future Doctor indicated his past self by pointing the end of his brolly at him, "if he sees _this_ me, then he'll be fully on his guard. This is a bit of a gamble, but not with your safety; only with our ability to time things properly and trap him."

"For ten years," his later self reminded him, frowning.

"Let's just concentrate on getting to him," his later self replied with a definite grump to his tone.

"Fine." There was a tinge of grumpiness in his younger self's voice as well, and Ace grinned into the darkness of the cave entrance. Seemed the Professor hadn't changed as much as she initially thought. "Since we seem to have no choice in the matter, Ace goes first."

"When we hear her talking to the Master, we'll know its safe to get close enough to access his mind. We have to be very careful to remain focused on him," he cautioned his younger self. "No delving around in each other's thoughts, eh?"

His younger self shrugged. "Of course."

"Right, off I go, then," Ace said, hefting her knapsack once again. The older Doctor reached out and deftly hooked one strap with the handle of his brolly. "Hey, what's the big idea!" Ace grabbed for it, and he pulled it closer to his side, dropping it carefully to the ground.

"Too geologically unstable," he reminded her grimly. "You should have left it on the TARDIS."

"Now you tell me," Ace muttered, but she turned back to the cave, this time inserting herself carefully into the narrow entrance. "Wish me luck!" Her words echoed on the breeze.

"Luck," both Doctors whispered softly, then glared at each other.

"Now who?" The fifth Doctor asked, and his counterpart stepped up to the entrance.

"Age before beauty," he quipped, ducking through the opening and turning sideways to ensure his ability to fit. With a grunt and a swift intake of air, he was through and gone from sight, just like Ace before him.

The fifth Doctor looked around, then followed the other two. For good or ill, they were committed to this action. Ten years wasn't a lot, but it was more than many people were given.

He just hoped he could spend as little time as possible fretting over the end of that time period.


	16. Ace In The Hole

**oOo**

There was a flicker of light ahead and a murmuring sound he was hard-put to identify. After the darkness and silence that marked his descent into the underground caves, both were more than welcome. It had only taken a few minutes to reach the chamber where the Master lay, recovering from his latest almost-death, but the Doctor had never been fond of close, dark places. Especially not with an enemy waiting for him at the end.

Before he even began following the narrow, winding path that led inexorably downward, he noticed the heat. The walls eventually gave off enough warmth that he could feel it through his clothes, on the few occasions he accidentally brushed up against one of the rocky, rough-hewn walls. The light, a sullen red glow that danced and flickered in the distance, appeared to come from a natural source rather than an artificial one. As he reached the point where the tunnel opened up, his suspicions were confirmed; lava flowed in a narrow channel at one end of the largish chamber that now lay before him. Near that flow, lying on a large, flattened rock was the Master.

He was turned away from the tunnel entrance, facing the lava, one arm flung across his face, the other dangling over the edge of the altar-like stone on which he lay. Ace was squatting patiently by his head, her attention half on him and half on the endless movement of the lava only a few meters from her feet. She glanced toward the entrance, saw the Doctor, and gave a small "thumbs up" sign before returning her attention to the unconscious form in front of her.

He frowned and looked around, finally spying his later counterpart crouched behind a largish outcropping of stone about two meters away and several meters closer to the Master than seemed prudent. His other self waved him forward impatiently, and he crept as silently as possible to the other man's hiding place.

It was well chosen, he grudgingly admitted to himself as he reached his destination. What had seemed at first to be imprudently close to the Master's current position was actually slightly farther than it appeared at first glance. Not only that, but there were areas that had eroded enough to afford them a view without having to expose themselves, if they were extremely careful. He assumed it was also close enough to hear the Master's voice, once he regained consciousness and Ace began her task of distracting him.

It was vital that the Master regain consciousness before any of this could work. "If he's recovering from being set on fire," Ace had asked, "then why not just go in there and do your hocus-pocus while he's still out?"

"Because it's his conscious mind we have to affect," her regular traveling companion had replied. "This will only work if he's awake and fully aware of his surroundings. Otherwise, if we catch him in a moment of half-consciousness, or even worse, fully unconscious, we run the risk of failing to fully capture him in the moment, so to speak."

At Ace's blank stare, his earlier self tried to clarify. "We want to trap him in the space between one second and the next, and in order to do so his mind must be focused on a particular moment in time. Even his mind wandering, just for a split second, would keep it from working." For Peri, he remembered bitterly, it had been extraordinarily easy; she was so focused on the idea of traveling with him that he had her complete attention. Exactly what his later self needed to trap her. With a mind as slippery as that of the Master, of course, it would take the concentrated efforts of two Time Lords to do the job.

Not that Ace's job was any easier, nor any safer. She had to keep the Master focused on her, keep his attention fully engaged, while at the same time remaining out of his reach and ensuring that he didn't realize the Doctor was there, in duplicate.

To that end, the Doctor's later self had insisted she pull on a native gown over her own clothing. "Why?" she'd demanded, annoyed at the voluminous beige skirts. "Slow me up, it will; besides, one word out of my mouth and he'll know I'm not from around here."

"True enough, but he'll probably believe you're one of the Trion political prisoners," the Doctor pointed out. "Earth clothes would completely give us away."

So there she was, with the loose folds of the gown gathered beneath her, her hair demurely braided, watching the Master like a hawk, only allowing her attention to wander to the lava flow for the briefest periods of time.

The Doctor's fifth self could hardly blame her; he could barely keep his eyes off it himself. Dangerous and lovely, there was something almost hypnotic about the molten surges, the red glow, the occasional pop or crackle as pieces of the hardened lava that formed the bulk of the cave floor broke off and rejoined the flow.

"Aaaaahhh!" The sudden cry startled them all, and the Doctor's two selves shuddered in sympathy. Even the Master, even their deadliest enemy, was capable of feeling pain, and each of them had suffered through the fires of regeneration enough to recognize that agonized cry as one they themselves might have uttered.

Ace, who had toppled backwards in her own startlement, scrambled back to her feet. Remembering the role she was playing, she stood up and moved cautiously forward. "Oi! You there, you all right?"

The Master groaned and rolled onto his back. His eyes opened, but remained unfocused, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. Ace peered down at him, then backed up as he rolled onto one elbow and glared around until his gaze settled on her. "You, girl! Who are you? Where am I?"

"Sarn, of course, where did you think you were?" Ace nimbly avoided his first question, but both Doctors could see the tension in her shoulders.

"Sarn." The Master repeated the name slowly, and the two Doctors watched, barely breathing, as his eyes narrowed in concentration. "Sarn. The fires..." He shuddered, then turned his gaze back to Ace. "Where on Sarn, girl?"

She didn't look happy with his chosen form of address, but managed to keep from commenting on it. "In a cave. I was exploring, and I found you." She looked him up and down critically. "You don't look like a native."

He sat up and swung his feet over the edge. "Of course I don't." The hauteur had never left his voice, even raspy with the heat. "And neither do you, for that matter." His arm shot out and grabbed for her, but she was waiting for just such a move and stepped away, just out of his reach. "Who are you?"

She shrugged. "Just visiting, you might say. Getting ready to go home soon, now that exile's been revoked."

"You're from Trion?" He sounded skeptical, but his attention was fully focused on her now, and the fifth Doctor looked at his future self, who returned the look and nodded in agreement: now was the time.

When the Master moved this time, it was with a speed none of them had anticipated, slow and painful as his movements had been up till now. He was on his feet, pulling Ace toward him by both arms, before either Doctor could blink. She cried out in surprised outrage, struggling against his hold, to no avail.

"All right, girl," he rasped, slamming her against the large stone on which he'd just been sitting. "Tell me, what are you doing here? The truth, this time. Who sent you?"

"No one," she managed to gasp out, glaring at him. "Why would they? No one knew you were here, at least I didn't. Have you come from Trion, are you part of the rescue party?"

Clever girl, putting the questions back on him. Now, if only he would let go of her; they certainly couldn't trap him when he was holding Ace. Not unless they wanted to trap her with him.

The Master opened his mouth to speak, only to snap it shut as a sudden paroxysm of pain shot through him. His grip on Ace's arms tightened convulsively, then he threw her away from him, gasping for breath. "Something's wrong," he said through gritted teeth.

Ace, teetering on the edge of the magma flow, ignored him until her footing steadied. She carefully stepped away from the edge, then turned her attention back to the Master. Who was also returning his attention to her. "You!" he snarled, taking a menacing step forward. Ace started to back away, then realized what she was doing and tried to dodge past him, only to be stopped by the rock. "You did something to me. What was it?" He feinted toward her again, and again she dodged, this time barely avoiding his grasping hands.

She ducked under his arms, cursing as her ankle turned on one of the loose stones littering the cavern floor. Her feet went out from under her as she fell heavily to the ground, rolling toward the edge of the channel while the Master laughed, raising his leg, obviously intending to kick her into the molten magma flowing inches away.

_Now!_ Each Doctor heard the other's voice in his mind as they simultaneously focused on the Master. His foot started to move, Ace scrabbled desperately to get out of the way, and the two Doctors _concentrated_.

Ace froze. Something was wrong, something was...off. She looked up cautiously, then scrambled to her feet. "Oi! Where'd you go?" The Master had vanished.

"He's still here." She looked for the source of that familiar voice, grinning as she saw the Doctor and his past self stepping around the edges of the stone that had hidden them from view. "Are you all right?" It was her Doctor asking, although she saw an equal amount of concern on the face of his younger self.

She nodded, still grinning, then pulled the voluminous folds of the dress over her head and dropped it to the floor of the cave. "Yah, I'm great," she replied, stepping toward them. Unconsciously stepping around the invisible form of the Master, both Doctors noted, just as she'd avoided the place Peri currently occupied in the Console Room. "Got a really close look at the lava, just like I wanted."

"A little closer than I would have liked," came the tart reply, but she saw the relieved grins on both their faces. "You were brilliant, Ace. Thank you."

"Yes, thank you," his earlier self echoed.

"I still want that trip to Hawaii." Ace grinned. Shaken, but not stirred; that was her, once again coming through a difficult situation with aplomb.

"Of course," the Doctor's later self agreed. "And now that that's been accomplished, I believe it's time we returned you to South Croydon."

"Past time," his younger counterpart agreed. He took one last look around the cave. Ten years. "Are you sure it's safe to leave him here?"

"Perfectly," his later self reassured him. "No geological activity here for the next fifty years. I checked."

His younger self nodded. "Right. Off we go, then." He strode purposefully toward the narrow entrance, and the other two followed, as eager as he to leave.


	17. Memory Lane

**oOo**

"I'm sorry."

The Doctor turned to face his later self, startled. "Sorry? You? For what?" They had barely stepped into the TARDIS and closed the doors behind them. "For not telling me about the need to take care of the Master? Believe me, it wasn't difficult to deduce."

His later self shook his head. "For this." His eyes narrowed as he locked gazes with his younger self. A startled gasp escaped that other self's lips before his expression froze, blue eyes wide and staring. _Contact! _He hated meddling with his own mind, but in this case it was unavoidable. "I really am sorry." He fell silent as he pulled certain memories out of the other man's mind. "The White Guardian will remove more memories later, when the ten years I've bargained for are up," he murmured after a full minute had passed. "But these are mine to remove."

Ace remained frozen by the console, not sure what was going on or what to do, if anything. "Professor?" Her voice was tentative, unsure, as was her expression. "What are you doing?"

"I'm ensuring my peace of mind," he replied, his voice distant. Then he blinked and suddenly appeared to be fully with her again, his mind returned from whatever distant place he'd just taken it. She wasn't so sure about his earlier self, however. "There, that's done it." He shook himself gently by the shoulder. "Hullo, are you paying attention?"

"What?" His younger self sounded dazed, sluggish. "What happened?"

He shrugged. "I'm not sure, you just went foggy for a moment. Contact by the Guardians, perhaps?"

"It's possible, although I can't imagine why." His voice was still a bit confused, and only a sharp look from "her" Doctor kept Ace from blurting anything out.

"Did it feel as if someone were examining your mind?" his later self asked, still gazing intently at the man before him. "Like someone wanted to take a peek at things from your perspective, perhaps?"

Another dazed nod. "Exactly. Then it was gone, leaving only a sense of...satisfaction."

"That certainly sounds like the Guardians," his later self said gravely. "They probably wanted to make sure things were going to stay on track from this point forward."

"Of course." Ace realized the Doctor's fifth self was still in some kind of a trance or something; he certainly seemed agreeable to anything "her" Doctor was telling him! "We've made sure of that." He sounded steadier, more assertive, and within seconds his crystal blue eyes had regained their full clarity.

He shook himself, offering Ace a puzzled stare. She smiled back uncertainly. "Look, the time rotor's stopped!" she said, grateful for the distraction. "We're back!"

"Ah, but when are we back?" The Doctor's fifth self bustled over to examine the chronometer. "Three days later, not too terribly bad."

"We've made excellent time. Speaking of which," his later self said, gesturing Ace toward the door, "I believe it's time we took our leave. Please tell everyone good-bye for us. Thank you for your cooperation, very generous of you, I'm sure; with any luck, I'll not be seeing you again!" He opened the door and ushered Ace through without a backward glance.

**oOo**

"That was cruel."

"What, just swanning off like that? He doesn't need us cluttering up the TARDIS while he greets his family," the Doctor replied, deliberately misunderstanding. He closed the door while Ace circled the console until she was facing him.

"Your family too," she pointed out, then frowned. "Which isn't what I was talking about, and you know it."

He shrugged. "Leaving the memories in place would be crueler. Much crueler." Yes, he knew what she was talking about.

"I don't think so." Ah, Ace was going to be disagreeable about this. Of course.

"Look at it this way," he said, turning to face her. "I have the memories, and he is me and I am him, so they're not truly gone. Just…temporarily suppressed."

"But why?" Ace demanded. "You can't just leave it at that, Professor. Just tell me why you made him forget everything."

"I didn't make him forget _everything_," the Doctor corrected her waspishly. "Only that there's a shorter span to his, er, 'off time' than he hopes." _Only that the future holds more tragedy than he needs to know about ahead of time,_ he added silently. More tragedy than Ace needed to know about, either. He considered meddling with her memories as well, then decided not to bother. She would never run into any of his past selves again, especially the fifth one. He'd make damn sure of that. And if she did? He shrugged mentally. He'd deal with it then.

Ace, unaware of how narrow an escape her own memories had just navigated, continued to press him. "You worked it so he went back to Earth and found out about Lanie, right? You help him trap the Master so the Universe can stay in balance or whatever, then you bung up his memories just to give him peace of mind for ten years? I still don't get it."

"Because, young lady, those ten years of peace are very precious to me," he finally snapped. "I cherish the memories of that time above almost all others I've managed to hold onto, and I would do and have done _anything_ to retain them." He took a calming breath. "If I allowed my earlier self to remember that there was a time limit set by the White and Black Guardians, if I allowed that self to understand that this was only a temporary lull, that I would be pitched back into my regular time stream at the end of that lull without any forewarning, with my memories being once again temporarily altered, this time by the White Guardian, it would destroy that peace of mind. Tegan's as well," he reminded her. "They would never be able to live in the moment, never be able to enjoy each other's company, watching Lanie grow and learn, the way I remember it happening."

Ace was frowning. "Wait, you said when your fifth self gets sucked back into the life you remember having lived, that the White Guardian alters his memories again. So how come you have them?"

"Because that's part of the deal I struck. Once time resumed its proper course, once I was firmly settled into my sixth incarnation, then the memories came back. It's no coincidence," he added with a trace of bitterness, "that I regenerated so quickly after meeting Peri and sending Turlough back to Trion. That was also part of the deal, unfortunately."

"So basically you sold out your earlier self just so you could remember some good times." Ace sounded disappointed, and he fought to ignore the discomfort that caused him. She scowled at him. "Selfish, that's what I call it."

"Call it what you like," he replied with a shrug he hoped radiated indifference. "I call it my life to do with as I please, at least within the constraints placed on me by outside sources. I wouldn't be so quick to judge if I were you, young lady. You certainly don't understand everything that happened."

Ooh, she'd really gotten him mad now. Good. He didn't deserve to feel complacent about what he'd done, how he'd manipulated himself. "So tell me. What am I missing?"

"You're forgetting that I not only have the pleasant memories I fought so hard to regain, but I also have the unpleasant ones as well." The hint of bitterness bloomed full force. He could see it surprised Ace; good. She wasn't the only one who felt he'd overstepped himself.

"Because of this," he continued, his tone intensifying, "I not only regenerated earlier than I might have otherwise, but that regeneration was a bit of a rough one." That was an understatement he chose not to revisit in detail. "The return of my altered memories, both sets, put my mind temporarily out of balance; I had to reconcile them at the same time I was struggling to deal with the regeneration itself. Six never fully came to terms with those memories, either," he added. It was also a key component in his post-regeneration fit of mania, when he'd tried to strangle Peri. He remembered deliriously blaming her because he'd been yanked out of the life he'd been so quietly living, plunged into a crisis and then forced to regenerate.

"Sounds confusing." Ace sounded a bit more subdued, her expression a little more sympathetic. "What about the regeneration after that?"

"It went a bit smoother, and here I am as you know me, a much less turbulent personality than my predecessor." He spread his arms then dropped them back to his sides.

"So you're number seven, right?" She grinned. "Why didn't you want me to know before?"

Something on the console beeped, and he stepped over to examine it before answering her. "Because I didn't want _him_ to know, and there was already too much I knew I'd have to erase," he finally replied, looking directly at her. "It's dangerous to know too much about your own future. Especially for a Time Lord. And it's equally dangerous to muck about with your own mind, so I preferred to minimize that, thank you very much."

"But it worked out, right? Everything's back where it belongs?"

The Doctor nodded, then tapped the side of his head. "All there, firmly in place."

"As far as you know," Ace couldn't resist adding as her grin turned mischievous.

The Doctor frowned. "Ye-es," he replied, drawing the word out thoughtfully.

"So what about Tegan, then?"

"Tegan copes," he lied. No point in telling her Tegan's true fate. That was one memory he wished he hadn't retained.

"There's just one more thing…"

"Isn't there always? What is it?" The Doctor was resigned to her questions, willing to answer them. Within reason.

"Is Lanie Susan or isn't she?"

He smiled, leaning forward until his face was very close to hers. "That's a very good question, young lady." He tapped her nose and abruptly leaned back. "A very good question indeed." Then he turned his attention to the console, ignoring Ace's strident demands for an answer. He was resigned to her questions, as he'd already told himself, willing to answer them.

But only within reason.

**oOo**

The Doctor stared after his future self, puzzled at his abrupt leave-taking, then shook his head and opted to ignore it. After all, who knew what extremes would shape his self-to-be. Extremes he would rather not know about, thank you very much.

Before exiting the TARDIS himself, he returned to the console. Should he check, just one more time? As he hesitated, the sound of voices alerted him to visitors, and he turned back toward the still-open door.

"Take care of yourself!" The muffled voice was Lavinia's, growing clearer as she peeked her head into the TARDIS. "There you are! Your later version informed us that things went well, but of course we had to see for ourselves!"

"Everything is just splendid," he beamed. "We won't have to worry about the Guardians interfering for a good long time."

"How long?" That was Tegan, nervously edging around Lavinia. She was holding Lanie by the hands, helping her walk. When she saw her father she crowed with delight, let loose of Tegan's fingers, and toddled toward him. "Her first steps! It figures it would be on the TARDIS!" Tegan muttered, but she couldn't hide the pleased smile that spread across her face.

The Doctor squatted down, opening his arms so Lanie could totter into them, laughing. He looked up at Tegan. "For a good long time," he replied to her initial question, his own smile still plastered across his face. "We've arranged things to their satisfaction, and the deviations have been corrected." He kissed the top of Lanie's head. "I plan to be around long after she's started University, or whatever else she might have planned for her life. Long enough for us," he added. He stood up, swooping Lanie into his arms, moving toward Tegan in three long strides.

She hadn't left the TARDIS entrance, seemed reluctant to cross its threshold, but the Doctor pulled her inside, holding her tightly. "It'll be all right," he murmured into her ear.

"The Guardians are going to let you stay, just like that?" Tegan was not convinced. "You're sure? Absolutely?"

He held them both close to his hearts. "Absolutely," he swore, then frowned. Was he? There was almost something, a memory of something, and then it was gone. Yes, he was sure, he knew it. Absolutely.

_Ten years._ He frowned again as that phrase echoed through his mind. Ten years what? But before he could follow that stray thought any further, Lanie chortled and Tegan was hugging him back and his mind snapped fully into the present. Ten years, who knew what it meant. After all, he had fragments of thoughts and memories from five selves floating around in there. He leaned forward and kissed Tegan joyfully, "ten years" as forgotten as any of those other half-remembered snips and snaps.

And the White Guardian smiled.

**The End (at least for 10 years...)**


End file.
